Thirty years ago, FEBS Letters published Nobel-winning work by Yoshinori Ohsumi and colleagues identifying the first yeast autophagy genes [1]. Our latest Special Issue, guest-edited by Tassoula Proikas-Cezanne (University of Tübingen) and Michael Thumm (University of Göttingen), features twelve Reviews that detail subsequent developments in the field and highlight current findings in relation to the molecular and functional understanding of autophagy.

The Reviews in this issue highlight new findings in autophagosome biogenesis through cryo-electron tomography [2], provide overviews of the regulation of macroautophagy [3] and microautophagy [4], and address nutrient-controlled signaling in S. cerevisiae [5]. Mechanisms of autophagosome biogenesis and fusion with the vacuole in S. cerevisiae are illustrated in two Reviews [6, 7], including a beautiful new Graphical Review. Two Reviews discuss the role of ATG8 [8] and ATG13 and ATG101 [9] in autophagosome biogenesis, and another dissects it from a structural approach [10]. Lastly, two Reviews discuss defective autophagy in the context of neurodegenerative disease [11,12].

FEBS Letters thanks the guest editors for their input and dedication in curating the publication of this excellent special issue. We are proud to have published seminal research in autophagy, and we invite our readers to explore the prolific expansion of this field over the last thirty years. FEBS Letters has recently renewed our commitment to original autophagy research by opening a Special Section, through which we hope to keep furthering the advancement of a field where, as our guest editors note, many questions remain unanswered.

1. Tsukada M and Ohsumi Y (1993) Isolation and characterization of autophagy-defective mutants of Saccharomyces cerevisiae. FEBS Lett 333, 169–174. 
2. Eskelinen E-L (2023) Novel insights into autophagosome biogenesis revealed by cryo-electron tomography. FEBS Lett doi: 10.1002/1873-3468.14726
3. Dupont N, Claude-Taupin A and Codogno P (2023) A historical perspective of macroautophagy regulation by biochemical and biomechanical stimuli. FEBS Lett doi: 10.1002/1873-3468.14744
4. Sakai Y and Oku M (2023) ATG and ESCRT control multiple modes of microautophagy. FEBS Lett doi: 10.1002/1873-3468.14760
5. Metur SP and Klionsky DJ (2023) Nutrient-dependent signaling pathways that control autophagy in yeast. FEBS Lett doi: 10.1002/1873-3468.14741
6. Shatz O and Elazar Z (2023) Autophagy in a nutshell. FEBS Lett doi: 10.1002/1873-3468.14679
7. Kraft C and Reggiori F (2023) Phagophore closure, autophagosome maturation and autophagosome fusion during macroautophagy in the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae. FEBS Lett doi: 10.1002/1873-3468.14720
8. Tooze SA, Zhang W, Lazzeri G, Gahlot D, Thukral L, Covino R and Nishimura T (2023) Membrane association of the ATG8 conjugation machinery emerges as a key regulatory feature for autophagosome biogenesis. FEBS Lett doi: 10.1002/1873-3468.14676
9. Nguyen A and Faesen AC (2023) The role of the HORMA domain proteins ATG13 and ATG101 in initiating autophagosome biogenesis. FEBS Lett doi: 10.1002/1873-3468.14717
10. Noda NN (2023) Structural view on autophagosome formation. FEBS Lett doi: 10.1002/1873-3468.14742
11. Ryan L and Rubinsztein DC (2023) The autophagy of stress granules. FEBS Lett doi: 10.1002/1873-3468.14787
12. Proikas-Cezanne T, Haas ML, Pastor-Maldonado CJ and Schüssele DS (2023) Human WIPI β-propeller function in autophagy and neurodegeneration. FEBS Lett doi: 10.1002/1873-3468.14782