Autophagy, derived from Greek “self-eating”, is an important process for recycling of cellular material. Autophagy is initiated in response to environmental stresses such as nutrient starvation, and acts to re-mobilise nutrients which enhances stress tolerance and promotes plant survival. This pathway involves the formation of a double membrane structure termed the ‘autophagosome’, which fuses with the vacuole resulting in the degradation of cellular material. 

Structure elucidation remains a crucial step towards understanding protein structure-function relationships at the molecular level. As such, structural studies are key in our understanding of conformational changes, binding epitopes and mode of interaction with binding partners.