Despite decades of research identifying the core autophagy-related (ATG) gene products that execute macroautophagy (hereafter autophagy), a systems-level understanding of how the broader genome dynamically tunes this process remains limited. Most studies rely on bulk assays that capture cumulative degradation at a single time point, making it difficult to resolve how autophagy is activated, sustained, and terminated over time. In addition, approaches to quantify temporal response kinetics across thousands of genotypes in parallel at the population level have been lacking, hindering predictive modeling and the development of precise pharmacological strategies to modulate autophagy.
Enserink et al. (Sat,) studied this question.