In more detail, 10 genes implicated in different stages of autophagy were selected, such as autophagosome initiation (namely, AMBRA1, PI3KC3, and UVRAG), phagophore elongation (namely, ATG5, ATG12, and ATG16L1), and phagophore maturation (DRAM1, DRAM2, and MAP1LC3B), all of which exhibited significant expression differences between at least the MDS risk group and the control group. The gene discussed is ATG12; the disease is myelodysplastic syndrome.