Model Organisms to Study Autophagy

Abstract

Autophagy is the major lysosomal pathway for the clearance of proteins, organelles and microbes in eukaryotic cells. Therefore, autophagic dysfunction can lead to numerous human diseases, like cancer or neurodegeneration, and may facilitate infections by pathogens. However, despite tremendous advances in the understanding of autophagy over the past decades, the functions and regulations of autophagy-related proteins in canonical and non-canonical autophagy are still not fully resolved. The Special Issue “Model Organisms to Study Autophagy” organized by Cells includes six original articles and one review that show the latest achievements in autophagy research using different model organisms. The Special Issue summarizes and discusses different aspects of autophagy that open new avenues in understanding autophagy functions and mechanisms.

Keywords

• autophagy
• model organism
• function
• non-canonical autophagy