Figure 11.

Parasite development after host cell autophagy is blocked. (A) Wild-type (WT) and atg5^−/− MEFs were incubated in starvation media (EBSS) for 2 h or maintained in normal media (left panels) before they were fixed and stained then and cells were stained with a monoclonal anti-LC3 antibody, and analyzed by IFA. In subsequent experiments, WT and atg5^−/− MEFs were infected with mCherry-expressing P. berghei (right panels). The infected cells were fixed 2 hpi. Then, cells were stained with a monoclonal anti-LC3 antibody, and analyzed by IFA. Scale bars: 10 µm. (B) WT and atg5^−/− MEFs were infected with GFP-expressing P. berghei and fixed 48 hpi. The total parasites were counted and depicted in the figure. Each bar represents the average of 3 independent experiments. The standard deviation is indicated. P = 0.0091. (C) WT and atg5^−/− MEFs were infected with P. berghei parasites. In the atg5^−/− cells, the medium was either supplemented with additional amino acids (atg5^−/− +aa) or left untreated (atg5^−/−). Parasite sizes were measured 48 hpi. ***, P < 0.0001. ns, not significant.