EMBO J (2013) 32: 2685–2696 doi:; DOI: 10.1038/emboj.2013.189; published online August 23 2013
Beclin 1 is a crucial regulator of autophagy. It forms a complex with ATG14L, VPS34 or the class III phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase AMBRA1 to control autophagosome formation. A study in this issue of The EMBO Journal (Xia et al, 2013) reports that WASH, a protein known to regulate endosomal sorting, hampers autophagy by inhibiting the AMBRA1-dependent polyubiquitylation of Beclin 1. This modification is required to promote VPS34 activity and to initiate autophagy during starvation.