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Canonical and non-canonical autophagy: variations on a common theme of self-eating?

Nature Reviews Molecular Cell Biology volume 13, pages 7–12 (2012)Cite this article

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Abstract

The autophagosome is the central organelle in macroautophagy, a vacuolar lysosomal catabolic pathway that degrades cytoplasmic material to fuel starving cells and eliminates intracellular pathogens. Macroautophagy has important physiological roles during development, ageing and the immune response, and its cytoprotective function is compromised in various diseases. A set of autophagy-related (ATG) proteins is hierarchically recruited to the phagophore, the initial membrane template in the construction of the autophagosome. However, recent findings suggest that macroautophagy can also occur in the absence of some of these key autophagy proteins, through the unconventional biogenesis of canonical autophagosomes. Such alternatives to the evolutionarily conserved scheme might provide additional therapeutic opportunities.

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Figure 1: Pathways of canonical and non-canonical autophagy.
Figure 2: Examples of non-canonical autophagy structures.

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Acknowledgements

Work in the authors' laboratories was supported by institutional grants from INSERM (Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale), Université Paris-Sud 11, the ANR (Agence Nationale de la Recherche) and INCa (Institut National du Cancer) to P.C. and M.M.; and from the German Research Society (DFG, SFB 773) to T.P.-C.

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  1. Patrice Codogno and Maryam Mehrpour are at the Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale (INSERM), University Paris-Sud 11, 92296 Châtenay-Malabry, France.,

    Patrice Codogno & Maryam Mehrpour

  2. Tassula Proikas-Cezanne is at the Interfaculty Institute for Cell Biology, Eberhard Karls University Tuebingen, 72076 Tuebingen, Germany.,

    Tassula Proikas-Cezanne

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Correspondence to Patrice Codogno.

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Codogno, P., Mehrpour, M. & Proikas-Cezanne, T. Canonical and non-canonical autophagy: variations on a common theme of self-eating?. Nat Rev Mol Cell Biol 13, 7–12 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1038/nrm3249

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