Mitophagy: From the dark into the spotlight

Despite the generally placid appearance of plants, many dynamic processes take place inside a plant cell. One such process that has garnered attention in recent years is termed "autophagy." While originally discovered in yeast, our understanding of autophagy in plants has improved significantly. Autophagy is considered a cellular recycling system in which cellular components or even entire organelles can be encapsulated by a membrane structure (autophagosome) and then transported to the vacuole (in plants) for degradation and re-use.