Autophagy

Autophagy is a pathway by which cytoplasmic constituents, including organelles and intracellular pathogens, are sequestered in a double-membrane-bound autophagosome and delivered to the lysosome for degradation.

The role of autophagy is to eliminate unwanted constituents from the cell and recycle cytoplasmic material allowing the cell to maintain macromolecular synthesis and energy homeostasis during starvation and other stressful conditions.