Figure 1.

Vps15 is required for starvation and rapamycin-induced autophagy in Drosophila. (a–a'') Fat body was dissected from feeding third-instar larvae starved for 4 h by feeding 20% sucrose. mCherry-Atg8a punctae reflect starvation-induced autophagosome formation in control (GFP positive) larval fat body cells, whereas the lack of puncta formation reflects a defect in autophagy in ΔVps15 (GFP negative) fat body cells. (b–b'') Knockdown of Vps15 phenocopies the results seen in Vps15 mutant cells as Vps15^IR-expressing cells (GFP positive) lack mCherry-Atg8a punctae. (c–c'') Midguts dissected from rapamycin-fed third-instar larvae expressing Vps15^IR specifically in GFP-marked clones of cells and analyzed by fluorescence and DIC microscopy. Representative images are shown