Autophagy: Self-Eating Pathway in Plants

Autophagy as the name suggest is defined as the process of self-degradation and recycles old or damaged cellular components in response to stress or damage. It is a conserved mechanism in eukaryotes and has been reported in yeast, plants and humans. It is very important to plant life, especially because plants are immobile and must survive in environmental extremes. Under normal conditions, autophagy functions as a housekeeping process to clear damaged or unwanted cytoplasmic contents, whereas under stressed condition, autophagy is upregulated. It is of two types namely macroautophagy and microautophagy among which macroautophgy is the predominant pathway. Autophagy has its role in nutrient starvation, response to oxidative stress, development and programmed cell death. Autophagy thus plays a dual role and serve both a “prosurvival” and a “prodeath” mechanism in plants.