Autophagy is complex and highly regulated. The master regulator is the Target of Rapamycin complex 1 (TORC1), a serine/threonine kinase that functions to sense the cell’s energy status. When cells have sufficient nutrients, TORC1 phosphorylates several substrates and blocks autophagy. In contrast, when cells are starved or treated with rapamycin, the TORC1 kinase is inhibited, triggering autophagy. The elongation of a structure called the phagophore to form the autophagosome requires Atg8, with a covalently-linked molecule of phosphatidylethanolamine (PE) on its C-terminus, which serves to recruit membranes to the phagophore (Klionsky et al. 2007).