title: To be or not to be? How selective autophagy and cell death govern cell fate.
abstract: The health of metazoan organisms requires an effective response to organellar and cellular damage either by repair of such damage and/or by elimination of the damaged parts of the cells or the damaged cell in its entirety. Here, we consider the progress that has been made in the last few decades in determining the fates of damaged organelles and damaged cells through discrete, but genetically overlapping, pathways involving the selective autophagy and cell death machinery. We further discuss the ways in which the autophagy machinery may impact the clearance and consequences of dying cells for host physiology. Failure in the proper removal of damaged organelles and/or damaged cells by selective autophagy and cell death processes is likely to contribute to developmental abnormalities, cancer, aging, inflammation, and other diseases.
authors.affiliation: Department of Immunology, St. Jude's Children's Research Hospital, Memphis, TN 38205, USA. Electronic address: douglas.green@stjude.org.
authors.forename: Douglas R
authors.initials: DR
authors.lastname: Green
authors.affiliation: Center for Autophagy Research, Department of Internal Medicine, Department of Microbiology and Howard Hughes Medical Institute, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, TX 75390, USA. Electronic address: beth.levine@utsouthwestern.edu.
authors.forename: Beth
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Levine
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001343:Autophagy; D016923:Cell Death; D002468:Cell Physiological Phenomena; D006801:Humans; D015388:Organelles / Q000378:metabolism