Autophagy: Process and function

Abstract

Autophagy is an intracellular degradation system that delivers cytoplasmic constituents to the lysosome. Despite its simplicity, recent progress has demonstrated that autophagy plays a wide variety of physiological and pathophysiological roles, which are sometimes complex. Autophagy consists of several sequential steps - sequestration, transport to lysosomes, degradation, and utilization of degradation products - and each step may exert different function. In this review, the process of autophagy is summarized, and the role of autophagy is discussed in a process-based manner. © 2007 by Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press.