Figure 1.

Overview of the autophagy pathway. Autophagy can be subdivided into following stages: (A) signal induction, which is regulated by the serine threonine kinases AMPK (AMP-activated kinase) and mTOR (mammalian target of rapamycin complex 1) (B) phagophore nucleation, which is induced by the Beclin1-containing phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase (PI3K) class III complex (C) vesicle expansion and autophagosome formation, which is governed by two ubiquitin-like conjugation systems, namely, ATG5-ATG12 and LC3 (microtubule-associated protein light chain 3). (D) autophagosome and lysosome fusion and (E) degradation and recycling. All stages are described in detail in their chapters, respectively (created with biorender.com).