Microautophagy

Microautophagy is one of the three common forms of autophagic pathway, but unlike macroautophagy and chaperone-mediated autophagy, it is mediated—in mammals by lysosomal action or in plants and fungi by vacuolar action—by direct engulfment of the cytoplasmic cargo. Cytoplasmic material is trapped in the lysosome/vacuole by a random process of membrane invagination.

The microautophagic pathway is especially important for survival of cells under conditions of starvation, nitrogen deprivation, or after treatment with rapamycin. Generally a non-selective process, there are three special cases of a selective microautophagic pathway: micropexophagy, piecemeal microautophagy of the nucleus, and micromitophagy, all which are activated only under a specific conditions.