Model Organisms to Study Autophagy

Dear Colleagues,

Autophagy is the major lysosomal pathway for the clearance of damaged organelles and the turnover of long-lived proteins and protein machineries. Autophagy occurs at a basal level in all cell types and is induced in response to starvation and several other cellular stresses. In unicellular organisms it evolved as a survival mechanism to provide free amino acids and other metabolic precursors during starvation. Autophagic dysfunction can lead to numerous human diseases like cancer, neurodegeneration, muscular dystrophy, lipid-storage disorders and may facilitate infections.

The first description of autophagy genes (Atg) was in the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae in the nineties of the last century. This breakthrough work was honoured by the Noble Prize in Medicine in 2016 to Prof. Yoshinori Ohsumi. It is now clear that a plethora of proteins with different activities is required for selective and non-selective as well as for canonical and non-canonical autophagy and its regulations.

This Special Issue “Model Organisms to Study Autophagy” aims to introduce “simple” as well as "complex" model organisms used in autophagy research and to present a selection of their many important contributions to the molecular understanding of the complex autophagic process.

We look forward to your contributions.

Prof. Dr. Ludwig Eichinger
Prof. Dr. Qiuhong Xiong
Guest Editors