Recent studies of the molecular mechanism of autophagy have made available several marker proteins for autophagosomes. These marker proteins allow us to identify autophagic structures easily and accurately by fluorescent microscopy. The most widely used marker for autophagosome is LC3, a mammalian homolog of Atg8. To analyze autophagy in whole animals, we generated GFP-LC3 transgenic mice and describe here how we determine the occurrence of autophagy in vivo using this mouse model.
