Autophagy in plants and phytopathogens

Plants and plant-associated microorganisms including phytopathogens have to adapt to drastic changes in environmental conditions. Because of their immobility, plants must cope with various types of environmental stresses such as starvation, oxidative stress, drought stress, and invasion by phytopathogens during their differentiation, development, and aging processes. Here we briefly describe the early studies of plant autophagy, summarize recent studies on the molecular functions of ATG genes, and speculate on the role of autophagy in plants and phytopathogens. Autophagy regulates senescence and pathogen-induced cell death in plants, and autophagy and pexophagy play critical roles in differentiation and the invasion of host cells by phytopathogenic fungi. (C) 2010 Federation of European Biochemical Societies. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.