Pexophagy and peroxisomal protein turnover in plants

Peroxisomes are dynamic, vital organelles that sequester a variety of oxidative reactions and their toxic byproducts from the remainder of the cell. The oxidative nature of peroxisomal metabolism predisposes the organelle to self-inflicted damage, highlighting the need for a mechanism to dispose of damaged peroxisomes. In addition, the metabolic requirements of plant peroxisomes change during development, and obsolete peroxisomal proteins are degraded. Although pexophagy, the selective autophagy of peroxisomes, is an obvious mechanism for executing such degradation, pexophagy has only recently been described in plants. Several recent studies in the reference plant Arabidopsis thaliana implicate pexophagy in the turnover of peroxisomal proteins, both for quality control and during functional transitions of peroxisomal content. In this review, we describe our current understanding of the occurrence, roles, and mechanisms of pexophagy in plants.