Mechanisms of autophagy function and regulation in plant growth, development, and response to abiotic stress

Autophagy is an evolutionarily conserved degradation pathway of lysosomes (in mammals) , vacuoles (in yeasts and plants) from lower yeasts to higher mammals. It wraps unwanted organelles and damaged proteins in a double-membrane structure to transport them to vacuoles for degradation and recycling. In plants, autophagy functions in adaptation to the environment and maintenance of growth and develop-ment. This review systematically describes the autophagy process, biological functions , regulatory mechanisms occurring during plant growth and development and in response to abiotic stresses. It pro-vides a basis for further theoretical research and guidance of agricultural production. (c) 2023 Crop Science Society of China and Institute of Crop Science, CAAS. Production and hosting by Elsevier B.V. on behalf of KeAi Communications Co., Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).