Autophagy is a cellular process whose primary function is to degrade long-lived 
proteins and recycle cellular components. Beside macroautophagy, there are 
several forms of selective autophagy, including chaperone-mediated autophagy 
(CMA), cytoplasm to vacuole targeting (Cvt), pexophagy and mitophagy. In this 
review, we summarize what is currently known about selective autophagy, and 
discuss its role in cell death and survival. We also discuss possible mechanisms 
underlying the selectivity of macroautophagy.