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). Here, PTEN is linked to prostate neoplasm.