Given the correlated alterations to lysosomal and autophagy pathways noted in some placental diseases, such as preeclampsia, it will be crucial to identify how such changes occur, as our research now suggests that defects in TFEB function would primarily result in defective syncytin expression and cell–cell fusion (also correlated with preeclampsia) but would not be primarily responsible for the lysosomal or autophagy defects seen in some studies (Nakashima et al. 2013, 2020a). Here, TFEB is linked to preeclampsia.