See How I Eat My Greens—Autophagy in Plant Cells

Eukaryotic cells have two conserved pathways for degrading polypeptides. One is the highly selective ubiquitin–proteasome system, and the other is autophagy, a bulk degradation pathway to a lytic compartment. Autophagy in plant cells has important roles in development and responses to abiotic and biotic stresses. Furthermore, plant autophagy has been implicated in vacuole biogenesis and Golgi-independent targeting of cytoplasmic materials to vacuoles. Here I present four questions that are frequently asked by plant scientists interested in autophagy. The first question relating to tools for plant autophagy research is relatively easy to answer, while the others are open questions about regulation of autophagy, autophagic cargoes, and potential differences of plant autophagic routes from corresponding metazoan pathways. This review will discuss recent progress that may provide the answers for the latter questions.