When times are hard, cells are sometimes forced to gather food from their own interiors. They can also use this mechanism - known as autophagy - to get rid of old or unwanted cell components. This process has now been dissected at a molecular level, and, surprisingly, the pathway by which it occurs is very similar to that used by ubiquitin, a protein that targets other proteins for destruction.
- Stefan Jentsch
- Helle D. Ulrich