Conditional knockout of autophagy-related genes, including autophagy-related protein 5 (Atg5) or autophagy-related protein 7 (Atg7), in mice led to pronounced vacuolization in both podocytes and tubular cells, ultimately contributing to the development of focal segmental glomerulosclerosis and renal dysfunction (Kawakami et al., 2015). This evidence concerns the gene ATG7 and focal segmental glomerulosclerosis.