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PMID: 20811354 Published · ppublish English Journal Article Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't Review

Autophagy in mammalian development and differentiation.

Nature cell biology ·Vol. 12 ·No. 9 ·2010-09-00 ·Pages 823-30

Mizushima N, Levine B

Abstract

It has been known for many decades that autophagy, a conserved lysosomal degradation pathway, is highly active during differentiation and development. However, until the discovery of the autophagy-related (ATG) genes in the 1990s, the functional significance of this activity was unknown. Initially, genetic knockout studies of ATG genes in lower eukaryotes revealed an essential role for the autophagy pathway in differentiation and development. In recent years, the analyses of systemic and tissue-specific knockout models of ATG genes in mice has led to an explosion of knowledge about the functions of autophagy in mammalian development and differentiation. Here we review the main advances in our understanding of these functions.

MeSH Terms
Animals Autophagy/physiology Cell Differentiation/physiology Growth and Development/physiology Homeostasis/physiology Humans
Authors & Affiliations
2 authors, click to expand affiliations / ORCID
Mizushima Noboru
Department of Physiology and Cell Biology, Tokyo Medical and Dental University, Tokyo 113-8519, Japan. [email protected]
Levine Beth
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Article Info
Journal
Nature cell biology
Abbr.
Nat Cell Biol
ISSN
1476-4679
DOI
10.1038/ncb0910-823
Email
[email protected]
Published
2010-09-00
Pages
823-30
Language
English
Region
England
NLM ID
100890575
PMCID
PMC3127249
Subset
IM
Grants
NIAID NIH HHS · U54 AI057156 · United States
NCI NIH HHS · R01 CA084254 · United States
Howard Hughes Medical Institute · United States
NCI NIH HHS · R01 CA85254 · United States
NCI NIH HHS · R01 CA109618-05 · United States
NCI NIH HHS · R01 CA109618 · United States
External Links
PubMed source DOI: 10.1038/ncb0910-823 PMC Full Text View journal details
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