The paper:
H. Zhang, et al., “Mitochondrial autophagy is an HIF-1-dependent adaptive metabolic response to hypoxia,” J Biol Chem, 283:10892–903, 2008. (Cited in 72 papers)

The finding:
By examining mouse embryonic fibroblasts, molecular biologist Gregg Semenza of The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and colleagues found that cells use autophagy to survive low oxygen conditions. Specifically, they showed that cells digest their mitochondria—a process known as mitochondrial autophagy—when deprived of oxygen, thereby halting oxidative metabolism, which would normally produce extra reactive oxygen species (ROS) during hypoxia. “The [cessation of oxidative metabolism] occurs not because there’s not enough oxygen to generate ATP, but to do so under hypoxic conditions would generate so much ROS, you’d kill the cell,” Semenza says.

The surprise:
“For the last 5 years or more, autophagy has been seen as a cell death process,” says cell biologist Jacques Pouysségur of the Institute of Developmental Biology and Cancer in France. This paper and the research that has followed shows that “this is not the case,” he says. “Autophagy is really for cell survival.”

The mechanism:
Comparing wild-type cells to cells lacking the α-subunit of hypoxia-inducible factor 1 (HIF-1α), Semenza’s group further showed that mitochondrial autophagy is dependent on HIF-1—a key player in oxygen homeostasis—which “orchestrates a shift from oxidative to glycolytic metabolism,” Semenza says.

The implication:
A study by Pouysségur and others added more details to the process and showed that it occurs in tumor cells as well, suggesting that it may be a survival mechanism that promotes tumor growth.

Percent decrease in oxidative metabolism (as measured by amount of mitochondrial DNA) in cells under hypoxic conditions:

Wild-type: 75%

HIF-1α knockout: 0.067%

I agree with the above comment. Autophagy is an evolutionary conserved mechanism for survival used by the cell under starvation or other conditions of cellular stress. Its role as a independent form of cell death (autophagic cell death) is actually debated.

Jacques Pouyssegur is quoted as saying, "For the last 5 years or more, autophagy has been seen as a cell death process."

Oh, really? Through whose eyes?