Identification and characterization of the autophagy-related genes Atg12 and Atg5 in hydra.

Autophagy is an evolutionarily conserved process in eukaryotic cells that is involved in the degradation of cytoplasmic contents including organelles via the lysosome. Hydra is an early metazoan which exhibits simple tissue grade organization, a primitive nervous system, and is one of the classical non-bilaterian models extensively used in evo-devo research. Here, we describe the characterization of two core autophagy genes, Atg12 and Atg5, from hydra.

Dengue virus-induced autophagosomes and changes in endomembrane ultrastructure imaged by electron tomography and whole-mount grid-cell culture techniques.

The biogenesis events and formation of dengue virus (DENV) in the infected host cells remain incompletely understood. In the present study, we examined the ultrastructural changes associated with DENV-2 replication in three susceptible host cells, C6/36, Vero and SK Hep1, a cell line of human endothelial origin, using transmission electron microscopy, whole-mount grid-cell culture techniques and electron tomography (ET). The prominent feature in C6/36 cells was the formation of large perinuclear vacuoles with mature DENV particles, and on-grid whole-mount examination of the infected Vero cells showed different forms of DENV core structures associated with cellular membranes within 48 h after infection.