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Updated: May 22, 2026

Analysis of Autophagy in Penicillium chrysogenum by Using Starvation Pads in Combination With Fluorescence Microscopy
Published on: February 1, 2015
Multifunction of autophagy-related genes in filamentous fungi
Irshad Ali Khan1, Jian-Ping Lu, Xiao-Hong Liu
1Biotechnology Institute, Zhejiang University, Yuhangtang Road 866, Hangzhou 310058, China.
Abstract:
Autophagy (macroautophagy), a highly conserved eukaryotic mechanism, is a non-selective degradation process, helping to maintain a balance between the synthesis, degradation and subsequent recycling of macromolecules to overcome various stress conditions. The term autophagy denotes any cellular process which involves the delivery of cytoplasmic material to the lysosome for degradation. Autophagy, in filamentous fungi plays a critical role during cellular development and pathogenicity. Autophagy, like the mitogen-activated protein (MAP) kinase cascade and nutrient-sensing cyclic AMP (cAMP) pathway, is also an important process for appressorium turgor accumulation in order to penetrate the leaf surface of host plant and destroy the plant defense. Yeast, an autophagy model, has been used to compare the multi-valued functions of ATG (autophagy-related genes) in different filamentous fungi. The autophagy machinery in both yeast and filamentous fungi is controlled by Tor kinase and both contain two distinct phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase complexes. In this review, we focus on the functions of ATG genes during pathogenic development in filamentous fungi.
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