ABSTRACT
The switch of the term “autophagic vacuole” from a specific to a collective denotation has not been entirely painless: the term is still sometimes used as a synonym for autophagosomes, which may create considerable confusion. In addition, the use of the word “vacuole” is prob lematic because this term denotes the yeast organelle that is equivalent to the lysosome, the terminal acceptor compartment of autophagy. The situation is not made easier by a current terminology that subclassifies the autophagic vacuoles (AVs) into initial AVs (AVį), which cor respond to autophagosomes; intermediate AVs (AVį/d), most of which may be amphisomes, and degradative AVs (AVd), corresponding to lysosomes.9 It would probably be advisable to avoid the AV term altogether, or at least to use it only in the collective sense, and in cases where a subclassification cannot be made with certainty.
