Figure 5.

Simultaneous silencing of Coq2 and autophagy genes induces synergistic effects. (A) Fluorescence micrographs showing nephrocytes of 1-day postemergence adult flies transgenic for Hand-GFP (GFP expressed under the control of a Hand gene enhancer to confirm pericardial nephrocyte cell identity).²³ ANF-RFP (red) is merged with GFP (green, predominantly in nucleus). Control flies carry the Dot-Gal4 driver but no RNAi construct. Gene-IR flies carry Dot-Gal4 driving RNAi transgenes silencing endogenous Coq2, Atg1, or Atg6 genes singly or in combination. (B) Quantitation of nephrocyte RFP levels, relative to control. For each genotype, 30 nephrocytes (six nephrocytes from each of five flies) were examined (* indicates significance compared with control, ^# indicates significance compared with Coq2-IR; P<0.05). (C) Oxidized DHE fluorescence (red) in nephrocytes of third instar larvae. Dashed lines indicate cell nuclei (determined from DAPI staining, not shown). (D) Quantitation of DHE fluorescence intensity expressed relative to control nephrocytes. For each genotype, 30 nephrocytes (six nephrocytes from each of five larvae) were examined (* indicates significance compared with control, ^# indicates significance compared with Coq2-IR; P<0.05).