FIGURE 1.

Autophagic flux is induced rapidly by NaCl treatment in Arabidopsis root cortex cells. (A,B) Sub-cellular distribution of the autophagosome marker GFP-AtATG8a in the root cortex cells was observed with confocal microscopy. (A) In the wild-type background, sporadic puncta representing autophagosomes were observed under controlled condition. Concanamycin A (ConA) treatment increased the number of autophagosomes. NaCl treatment (100 mM, 30 min) also increased the numbers of autophagosomes. NaCl plus ConA treatment further increased the number of autophagosomes and autophagic bodies. At 1 h of NaCl treatment, autophagosomes were still detected, but were less in numbers compared with the 30 min time point. (B) In atg10 background, few autophagosomes were detected, and their numbers were not induced by ConA or NaCl. Bar = 25 μm. (C) The numbers of autophagosomes per field were quantified from >30 cells of 20 seedlings from at least three biological replicates. ^∗∗∗p < 0.001. Bar = standard error.