Getting under the skin: Cuticle damage elicits systemic autophagy response in C. elegans.

In this issue, Zhang et al. (2019. J. Cell. Biol. https://doi.org/10.1083/jcb.201907196) describe a molecular mechanism by which cuticular damage in the nematode C. elegans leads to systemic induction of autophagy by signals propagated from sensory neurons via the TGF-β signaling pathway.