Identifying specific receptors for cargo-mediated autophagy.

Macroautophagy has been implicated in numerous diseases, yet our understanding of the proteins responsible for the turnover of specific cargo by autophagy is limited. In a recent paper published in Nature, Mancias et al. used quantitative proteomics to identify a cohort of autophagosome-enriched proteins, one of which, nuclear receptor coactivator 4 (NCOA4) was shown to be required for the selective delivery of ferritin to the lysosome, ultimately regulating intracellular iron by autophagic turnover of ferritin, or ferritinophagy.