Figure 1. Glucose deprivation leads to autophagic degradation of mutant p53. (A) Wild type p53 is degraded by the proteasome under basal conditions but can be activated in an AMPK-dependent manner after glucose deprivation. Activated wild type p53 can induce a variety of cellular responses to glucose deprivation including autophagy, cell cycle arrest, senescence and apoptosis. (B) Cancer-associated p53 mutants are constitutively expressed at high levels and inhibit basal autophagy. Glucose deprivation leads to rapid de-acetylation of mutant p53 and subsequent degradation through autophagy. Because mutant p53 suppresses autophagy, its degradation leads to a feedforward autophagic loop that results in cell death.