Autophagy: Paying Charon's Toll

Autophagy (literally self-eating) has diverse cytoprotective functions but also is linked to programmed cell death (PCD). In this issue, Qu et al. (2007) analyze the role of autophagy in PCD during development. Unexpectedly they find that autophagy induces apoptotic cells to present a signal to ensure their clearance, which is crucial for mouse embryonic morphogenesis.