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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2012 Jul 1.
Published in final edited form as: Neurobiol Dis. 2011 Feb 3;43(1):38–45. doi: 10.1016/j.nbd.2011.01.021

Figure 1.

Figure 1

Schematic illustrating the endocytic and the autophagic pathways to the lysosome. Internalized materials entering the endocytic pathway are directed to early endosomes, which mature to late endosomes/multivesicular bodies. In the autophagic pathway, a phagophore sequesters an area of cytoplasm containing organelles to form a double membrane-limited autophagosome. The formation of amphisomes via the fusion between autophagosomes and late endosomes/multivesicular bodies provides an interactive point between the two pathways. Autophagosomes, and amphisomes in the two pathways receive hydrolases by fusing with lysosomes to form autolysosomes or late endosomes/multivesicular bodies to form amphisomes. Efficient digestion of substrates within these compartments yields lysosomes containing mainly acid hydrolases.