Fig 1. Palmitate oxidation promotes ATP production and viability in epimastigote forms under starvation.

A) Schematic representation of ¹⁴C-U-palmitate metabolism. The metabolites corresponding to labelled palmitate metabolism are presented in green. B) ¹⁴CO₂ production from epimastigotes incubated in PBS with ¹⁴C-U-palmitate 100 μM. The ¹⁴CO₂ was captured at 0, 30, 60 and 120 min. C) Viability of epimastigote forms after incubation with different carbon sources and palmitate. The viability was assessed after 24 and 48 h by MTT assay. D) The intracellular ATP content was evaluated following incubation with different energy substrates or not (PBS, negative control). The ATP concentration was determined by luciferase assay and the data were adjusted by the number of cells. A statistical analysis was performed with one-way ANOVA followed by Tukey’s post-test at p < 0.05 using the GraphPad Prism 8.0.2 software program. We represent the level of statistical significance in this figure as follows: *** p value < 0.001; ** p value < 0.01; * p value < 0.05. For a p value > 0.05 we consider the differences to be not significant (ns).