Rebellious autophagy proteins bypass ATG8 lipidation, taking their own path to autophagic degradation.

LC3/GABARAP (hereafter ATG8) conjugation machineries have long been thought to play an essential role in autophagy by driving ATG8 lipidation on autophagosomal membranes. In this issue, Ohnstad et al (2020) describe an ATG8 lipidation bypass pathway which governs autophagy-dependent turnover of NBR1, highlighting that there is more than one road to autophagic degradation.