ULK1 cycling: The ups and downs of the autophagy response

The Ser/Thr kinase ULK1/Atg1 controls autophagy initiation under nutrient starvation conditions. In this issue, Nazio et al. (2016. J. Cell Biol. https://doi.org/10.1083/jcb.201605089) demonstrate that oscillatory modulation of NEDD4L-mediated proteasomal degradation and mTOR-dependent de novo protein synthesis of ULK1 ensures the proper amplitude and duration of the autophagy response during prolonged starvation, thus maintaining cellular homeostasis.