FIGURE 1.

A postulated model of the ERvt pathway in plants. (1) An ERvt body, containing vacuole destined proteins (purple triangles/orange circles) such as storage proteins or proteases, buds from the ER. (2) with the aid of special cargo receptors (such as ATI1 and 2) that interact with Atg8, the ERvt body will be attached to an isolation membrane (phagophore), and (3) will be engulfed by this expanding membrane to form a special type of ERvt autophagosome. (4) This ERvt autophagosome will fuse with the tonoplast (5) releasing the ERvt body into the vacuole as an autophagic body (6) for its subsequent degradation, and (7) incorporation of the cargo proteins to the vacuole