Mitophagy Controls the Activities of Tumor Suppressor p53 to Regulate Hepatic Cancer Stem Cells (Molecular Cell)

Autophagy is required for the malignant transformation of liver tumors. Liu et al. demonstrated that mitophagy, the selective removal of mitochondria by autophagy, was required to maintain the hepatic cancer stem cell population by removing mitochondria-associated p53, which otherwise would be activated by PINK1 to suppress the expression of NANOG.