Pexophagy: The Selective Degradation of Peroxisomes

Figure 6

Peroxisome degradation pathways in mammalian cells. Surplus peroxisomes or their contents (e.g., peroxisomal matrix proteins) can be degraded by at least three distinct mechanisms: Lon protease-mediated proteolysis, 15-lipoxygenase (15-LOX)-mediated cytosolic degradation (autolysis), and pexophagy (autophagy-mediated lysosomal degradation). Current studies suggest that the majority of peroxisomes are degraded by pexophagy (indicated by bold arrow).