"Alternate forms of autophagy
-mentioned earlier that nutrient starvation is the most potent signal for the
induction of autophagy, representing a fundamental evolutionary adaptation to
the persistent challenge of nutrient limitation, starvation. In our work, we have
predominantly assessed autophagy in cells that have been subjected to starvation.
But evolution is highly resourceful, and as with many highly-conserved core
cellular processes, autophagy has found a range of diverse applications in the
cell. In contrast to the canonical autophagy pathway, where induction is tightly
regulated and induced in response to starvation, constitutive forms of autophagy,
which occur continuously at a basal level in the cell, have also been uncovered.
Constitutive autophagy, the progress of which is independent of starvation,
is important for cytoplasmic homeostasis.