Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jan 22, 2026

In Situ Immunofluorescent Staining of Autophagy in Muscle Stem Cells
Published on: June 12, 2017
Autophagy: An evolutionarily conserved process in the maintenance of stem cells and aging
Karthikeyan Vijayakumar1,2, Goang-Won Cho1,2
1Department of Biology, College of Natural Science, Chosun University, Gwangju, South Korea.
Abstract:
Autophagy is an evolutionarily conserved process that degrades and recycles defective organelles, toxic proteins, and various other aggregates on the cytoplasmic surface by sequestering them into autophagosomes which, then, fuse with lysosomes which degrade them. If these aggregates are not cleared, they accumulate and damage the cell resulting in cellular senescence and aging. Stem cells, with their capacity to differentiate, are crucial for tissue homeostasis. In addition to differentiation, the stemness of stem cells must be preserved. Recent studies in stem cells show the importance of autophagy in evading cellular senescence. In this review, we describe the conservative nature of the autophagy process, carried out throughout evolution. In particular, we highlight the role of autophagy in various evolutionarily diverse species and how it evolved to maintain tissue homeostasis and regulate aging and cellular senescence in stem cells.
Related Concept Videos
Cancer Stem Cells and Tumor Maintenance
Cancer stem cells are thought to originate from tissue-specific normal stem cells or progenitor cells. The normal stem cells usually reside in...
Maintenance of the ES Cell State
What is Conservation Biology?
Conservation of Small Populations
Conserved Binding Sites
Binding sites are often located in large pockets, and if their location on a protein’s surface is unknown, it can be predicted using various approaches. The energetic method computationally...
Autophagy
An autophagic pathway consists of a series of signaling events activated in response to diverse stress and physiological conditions such as food deprivation,...

