Autophagy Protein Atg3 is Essential for Maintaining Mitochondrial Integrity and for Normal Intracellular Development of Toxoplasma gondii Tachyzoites
Figure 5
TgAtg8 ends with a C-terminal glycine that is essential for lipidation and conjugation to the autophagosomes.
A. Fluorescence microscopy analysis of extracellular tachyzoites expressing GFP-TgAtg8 or its glycine mutant version, before or after induction of autophagy for 8 hours in HBSS. Autophagosomes are labelled by GFP-TgAtg8 in control parasites (arrowheads), but not by the glycine mutant version of the protein. B. Extracellular tachyzoites expressing GFP-TgAtg8 or its glycine mutant version were put to starve in HBSS medium for increased lengths of time and the proportions of cells displaying punctate or cytosolic GFP signals were assessed. Data are mean from n = 4 independent experiments ±SEM. C. Protein extracts corresponding to tachyzoites expressing GFP-TgAtg8 and glycine mutant version incubated in HBSS for up to 8 hours, were separated by urea SDS-PAGE and analysed with an anti-GFP antibody to detect GFP-TgAtg8 and lipidated GFP-TgAtg8-PE forms. Anti-ROP5 was used as a loading control.