Autophagy in response to environmental stresses: New monitoring perspectives

Autophagy, an evolutionarily conserved process of cellular homeostasis in all eukaryotes, has been heavily implicated in many aspects of human health and diseases. However, its pivotal roles, particularly in stress and adaptive responses in other species in the environment, have perhaps not received the attention they deserve. Autophagy processes may underlie important ecological phenomena such as coral bleaching, as well as various forms of responses and adaptations to environmental forcing and deterioration. Investigating and assessing autophagy responses in the contexts of environmental stresses and ecological changes would therefore be important. Such investigations in indicator organisms could provide valuable parameters for ecosystems health assessment. Understanding autophagy responses in ecologically important species could also be useful in efforts of species and biodiversity conservation.