Feast or famine: autophagy control and engineering in eukaryotic cell culture.

Autophagy is a degradative process playing a role in both cell death and cell survival. Its presence is well conserved both in lower and higher eukaryotes. Recent studies have shown that activation or inhibition of autophagy may be possible in biotechnologically important species including mammalian cells and filamentous fungi using both environmental manipulation and genetic engineering. As our understanding of the autophagic biochemical pathways increases and monitoring methods become more user-friendly, the potential exists to obtain an optimum level of autophagy. This may allow for maximum cell survival and production of proteins and other metabolites in these industrially important eukaryotes.