Wiring autophagy: Neural circuits regulate lysosomal homeostasis in muscle.

Autophagy is commonly viewed as a cell-autonomous degradative process governed by intracellular metabolic and stress signals,1 but how autophagy is coordinated across tissues in multicellular organisms remains unclear. Zheng et al. 2 identify two parallel neuronal circuits that non-cell-autonomously regulate muscle autophagy in C. elegans, revealing an unexpected role for the nervous system in orchestrating peripheral autophagy.