What is the advantage of a transient precursor in autophagosome biogenesis?

We have recently proposed that some autophagosomes are formed within omegasomes, membrane sites connected to the endoplasmic reticulum and enriched in phosphatidylinositol 3-phosphate. In order to understand if there is any biological advantage to having such a precursor in autophagosome biogenesis, we generated a simple computer program that simulates omegasome and autophagosome formation under a variety of conditions. We concluded from running this simulation that having a transient precursor permits a bigger dynamic range of the autophagic response and allows a more efficient approach to steady state after autophagy stimulation.