Identification of Atg8 from Acanthamoeba castellanii by genetic complementation in Saccharomyces cerevisiae.

Autophagy is a eukaryotic process responsible for the degradation of intracellular content such as damaged organelles. Several putative autophagy-related genes have been identified within the annotated genome of the free-living amoeba Acanthamoeba castellanii. However, the involvement of the corresponding proteins in the autophagy pathway had not been formerly established. Here, we report that AcAtg8 cDNA can complement ATG8-deficient Saccharomyces cerevisiae.