Current knowledge of the pre-autophagosomal structure (PAS).

Autophagy is a system for degradation of bulk cellular components in lytic compartments, vacuoles, or lysosomes when eukaryotic cells face with nutrient starvation. In this review, we focus on the pre-autophagosomal structure (PAS), a functional entity responsible for autophagosome formation in Saccharomyces cerevisiae, and discuss its relevance to autophagy in mammalian cells.