Endoplasmic reticulum stress inducing autophagy. BIP (GRP78) senses the presence of misfolded proteins and releases ATF6, IRE1 and PERK to allow them to enter their active states, resulting in transcriptional programs that relieve the ER stress and activate autophagy. ATF4, downstream of the PERK-eIFα pathway, transactivates LC3b and Atg7, resulting in activation of the compensatory autophagic mechanism.