Beclin-1 plays a key role in tumor suppression and autophagy. It has been suggested that autophagy proteins such as beclin-1 can inhibit tumorigenesis and that decreased expression of these proteins may contribute to the development of human malignancies (Liang et al., 1999). Akt-mediated phosphorylation of beclin-1 at Ser295 has been shown to decrease autophagy and promote oncogenesis (Wang et al., 2012).
