Figure 1: CALM modulates autophagy.

(a) Western blot analysis of CALM, actin, GAPDH and LC3-II in several cell lines (HeLa, HEK, CAD and murine embryonic fibroblast (MEF)) where CALM was knocked down using shRNA or siRNA, as indicated, or knockout with rescue experiment. In all experiments in this paper, we used a scramble siRNA or a luciferase shRNA as controls. The cells were starved in Hanks balanced salt solution (HBSS) and treated with Baf A1 as indicated. (BC, basal conditions; SE, short exposure; LE, longer exposure). Quantification of LC3-II/actin or GAPDH ratio is shown in Supplementary Fig. 1A. *Not specific. (b) LC3 dot counting in CALM knockdown cells. CALM was knocked down in HeLa cells expressing GFP-LC3 and with or without an siRNA-resistant form of wild-type CALM (rescue), as indicated. The cells were starved in HBSS for 4 h, fixed and subjected to microscopy to score the number of LC3 dots per cell. The knockdown efficiency and the level of the siRNA-resistant form of CALM are shown on the left on the western blotting. The number of LC3 dots per cell (shown as mean ±s.d.) is shown on the graph for each condition (n≥300 cells per condition; BC, basal conditions). The ratio of the number of LC3 dots per cell between starvation and basal conditions is shown on the right (*P<0.01; NS, not significant, two-tailed t-test). Pictures obtained from automated microscope are shown. Scale bars, 20 μm.