Regulation of macroautophagy in Saccharomyces cerevisiae

Macroautophagy (hereafter autophagy) is a cellular degradation process, which in yeast is induced in response to nutrient deprivation. In this process, a double-membrane vesicle, an autophagosome, surrounds part of the cytoplasm and fuses with the vacuole to allow the breakdown and subsequent recycling of the cargo. In yeast, many autophagy-related (ATG) genes have been identified that are required for selective and/or nonselective autophagy. In all autophagy-related pathways, core Atg proteins are required for the formation of the autophagosome, which is one of the most unique aspects of autophagy and is unlike other vesicle transport events. In contrast to nonselective autophagy, the selective processes are induced in response to various specific physiological conditions such as alterations in the carbon source. In this review, we provide an overview of the common aspects concerning the mechanism of autophagy-related pathways, and highlight recent advances in our understanding of the machinery that controls autophagy induction in response to nutrient starvation conditions.