Methods to Study Autophagocytosis in Magnaporthe oryzae

Autophagy is an evolutionarily conservative biological process in eukaryotes. Since the lysosomes were discovered by De Duve in the 1950s, autophagy has been studied for more than half a century and the mechanism of autophagy process has been discovered in many model organisms. In the rice blast fungus Magnaporthe oryzae, autophagy relative proteins are essential for appressorium formation, penetration, and invasive growth. The null mutants for the expression of autophagy gene homologs in M. oryzae lose their pathogenicity for infection of host plants. In this chapter, we provide some methods for monitoring autophagy process using physics and biochemistry assays in M. oryzae. Moreover, similar approaches can be used to monitor autophagy in other plant filamentous pathogenic fungi.