Punctate structures proximal to the endoplasmic reticulum which are the sites where the Atg machinery assembles upon autophagy induction. [ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12048214 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12554655 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11689437 GOC:elh ]