PTEN and neoplasm: It is important to note that ATG7 has several non-autophagic functions (DeSelm et al., 2011; Lee et al., 2012; Chen et al., 2023; Deng et al., 2023), and in relation to this, an alternative explanation for the delayed development and growth of the Pten deficiency-induced mouse prostate tumours mentioned above (Santanam et al., 2016), could for instance, be related to the autophagy-independent effect that ATG7 has upon binding to the tumour suppressor TP53, which results in enhanced apoptotic cell death in the absence of Atg7 (Lee et al., 2012).