We used human HeLa cells (ATCC CCL-2), MEFs, Atg5 KO MEFs (Kuma et al., 2004 (link)), and CRISPR-Cas9–generated HeLa ATG7 KO cells (Mejlvang et al., 2018 (link)). All cells were cultured in DMEM (D6046; Sigma-Aldrich) supplemented with 10% FBS (S0615; Biochrom) and 1% streptomycin-penicillin (P4333; Sigma-Aldrich) and kept in a humidified incubator at 37°C and 5% CO2. Starvation experiments were conducted by incubating cells in HBSS (H9269; Sigma-Aldrich). Cells were treated with 1 µg/ml tetracycline (Sigma-Aldrich), 200 ng/ml BafA1 (sc-201550; Santa Cruz Biotechnology), and 25 µM MG132 for the indicated time periods. DNA transfection was done with Metafectene Pro (T040; Biontex) according to the manufacturer’s protocol. siRNA transfections were done with RNAiMAX according to the manufacturer’s protocol.