Figure 1

Quantitation of Plekhm mRNA levels and basic autophagy in PLK2-KO mice. (A) Levels of plk2, plk1, and plk3 mRNA were examined by RT real-time quantitative PCR (qPCR) in hearts from 3-month-old female and male mice with global Plekhm2 knockout (PLK2-KO, n = 8) and their normal siblings (WT, n = 5–6). The results are presented as the fold of plk2 expression in WT mice. GAPDH (gpdh) served as an internal control. (B) Representative example of WB results for LC3I, LC3II, p62, and GAPDH protein levels in 3-month-old female mice subjected to 3 h of 80 mg/kg CQ. (C) Quantitative analysis of the LC3II/LC3I ratio and p62/GAPDH. Autophagy flux was calculated as the delta between CQ-injected mice and untreated mice in each group (inset). *p < 0.05, **p < 0.01, and ***p < 0.001 by Kruskal–Wallis test with Dunn’s multiple comparison post-test and the Mann–Whitney nonparametric test.