Macroautophagy (hereafter autophagy) is a cellular degradation process, which in 
yeast is induced in response to nutrient deprivation. In this process, a 
double-membrane vesicle, an autophagosome, surrounds part of the cytoplasm and 
fuses with the vacuole to allow the breakdown and subsequent recycling of the 
cargo. In yeast, many autophagy-related (ATG) genes have been identified that 
are required for selective and/or nonselective autophagy. In all 
autophagy-related pathways, core Atg proteins are required for the formation of 
the autophagosome, which is one of the most unique aspects of autophagy and is 
unlike other vesicle transport events. In contrast to nonselective autophagy, 
the selective processes are induced in response to various specific 
physiological conditions such as alterations in the carbon source. In this 
review, we provide an overview of the common aspects concerning the mechanism of 
autophagy-related pathways, and highlight recent advances in our understanding 
of the machinery that controls autophagy induction in response to nutrient 
starvation conditions.