Selective types of autophagy perform a cellular quality control function and therefore they must be able to distinguish their substrates, such as protein aggregates or dysfunctional mitochondria, from their functional counterparts. The molecular mechanisms underlying cargo selection and regulation of selective types of autophagy are still largely unknown. This has been an area of intense research during the last years and our understanding of the various selective types of autophagy is starting to unravel. A recent genomewide small interfering RNA screen aimed at identifying mammalian genes required for selective autophagy found 141 candidate genes to be required for viral autophagy and 96 of those genes were also required for Parkin-mediated mitophagy [79] .