beclin 1(BECN1) Homo sapiens This gene encodes a protein that regulates autophagy, a catabolic process of degradation induced by starvation. The encoded protein is a component of the phosphatidylinositol-3-kinase (PI3K) complex which mediates vesicle-trafficking processes. This protein is thought to play a role in multiple cellular processes, including tumorigenesis, neurodegeneration and apoptosis. Alternative splicing results in multiple transcript variants. [provided by RefSeq, Sep 2015]。