Figure 4.

Autophagy induces the increase of colocalization between cruzipain, Atg8.1, and DQ-BSA-positive compartments. (A) Immunofluorescence analysis of triple colocalization between cruzipain, Atg8.1 and the hydrolytic marker DQ-BSA in epimastigotes (Y WT strain) exposed to the complete differentiation cycle (72 h) under optimal nutritional conditions (BHT) or nutritional stress (TAU). Parasites’ boundaries are depicted by white dashed lines. Scale bars: 5 µm. (B) Quantification of Mander’s coefficients corresponding to the triple colocalization between cruzipain-positive compartments with those autophagic and hydrolytic compartments. Data are shown as mean ± error of two independent experiments. A total of 20 parasites per group for each experiment were quantified. P values were calculated using the Student 2-tailed unpaired t-test. (***) p ≤ 0.001