Figure 1.

Model for selective autophagy. Selective autophagy depends on autophagy receptors and adaptors linking the cargo to become degraded to the autophagic membranes. The cargo is recognized by an autophagy receptor that has a specific ligand-binding domain (e.g. an ubiquitin-binding domain) as well as a motif known as LIR, mediating its interaction with Atg8/LC3 family proteins. An adaptor protein (e.g. ALFY) further facilitate sequestration of the specific cargo by linking the cargo-receptor complex to core Atg proteins. Cargo-specific names have been given to describe the various types of selective autophagy, including xenophagy (invasive pathogens), mitophagy (mitochondria), pexophagy (peroxisomes), aggrephagy (aberrant protein aggregates and disease-related inclusions) and glycophagy (glycogen particles)