Abstract

Cells require a constant supply of macromolecular precursors and oxidizable substrates to maintain viability. Unicellular eukaryotes lack the ability to regulate nutrient concentrations in their extracellular environment. So when environmental nutrients are depleted, these organisms catabolize existing cytoplasmic components to support ATP production to maintain survival, a process known as autophagy. By contrast, the environment of metazoans normally contains abundant extracellular nutrients, but a cell's ability to take up these nutrients is controlled by growth factor signal transduction. Despite evolving the ability to maintain a constant supply of extracellular nutrients, metazoans have retained a complete set of autophagy genes. The physiological relevance of autophagy in such species is just beginning to be explored.

Keywords

AutophagyExtracellularCell biologyNutrientBiologyCytoplasmIntracellularSignal transductionEssential nutrientCellCatabolismBiochemistryEcologyMetabolismApoptosis

MeSH Terms

AnimalsAutophagyCell SurvivalEnergy MetabolismGrowth SubstancesHumansMicroscopyElectronTransmissionProtein KinasesProtein Serine-Threonine KinasesProto-Oncogene ProteinsProto-Oncogene Proteins c-aktSignal TransductionTOR Serine-Threonine Kinases

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Publication Info

Year
2005
Type
review
Volume
6
Issue
6
Pages
439-448
Citations
748
Access
Closed

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Cite This

Julian J. Lum, Ralph J. DeBerardinis, Craig B. Thompson (2005). Autophagy in metazoans: cell survival in the land of plenty. Nature Reviews Molecular Cell Biology , 6 (6) , 439-448. https://doi.org/10.1038/nrm1660

Identifiers

DOI
10.1038/nrm1660
PMID
15928708

Data Quality

Data completeness: 81%