Priault M, et al. (2005) Impairing the bioenergetic status and
the biogenesis of mitochondria triggers mitophagy in yeast. Cell
Death Differ 12(12):1613-21 Abstract: Autophagy, a highly
regulated programme found in almost all eukaryotes, is mainly
viewed as a catabolic process that degrades nonessential
cellular components into molecular building blocks, subsequently
available for biosynthesis at a lesser expense than de novo
synthesis. Autophagy is largely known to be regulated by
nutritional conditions. Here we show that, in yeast cells grown
under nonstarving conditions, autophagy can be induced by
mitochondrial dysfunction. Electron micrographs and biochemical
studies show that an autophagic activity can result from
impairing the mitochondrial electrochemical transmembrane
potential. Furthermore, mitochondrial damage-induced autophagy
results in the preferential degradation of impaired mitochondria
(mitophagy), before leading to cell death. Mitophagy appears to
rely on classical macroautophagy machinery w