In the extreme case of starvation, the breakdown of cellular components promotes cellular survival by maintaining cellular energy levels.

The word "autophagy" was in existence and frequently used from the middle of the 19th century. In its present usage, the term autophagy was coined by Belgian biochemist Christian de Duve in 1963 based on his discovery of the functions of lysosome. The identification of autophagy-related genes in yeast in the 1990s allowed researchers to deduce the mechanisms