Lysosomal and autophagic functions are sustained by VCP, which plays a role in lysosome homeostasis, and by SQSTM1, TBK1 and OPTN, which interact in the autophagy (Abramzon et al., 2020; Fleming et al., 2022), all mutated in ALS and FTD. The gene discussed is OPTN; the disease is amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.