Exploring selective autophagy in Drosophila: Methods to identify Atg8-interacting proteins

Autophagy has been described as a catabolic process in which cytoplasmic material is being recycled under various conditions of cellular stress, preventing cell damage and promoting cell survival. Drosophila has been demonstrated to provide an excellent animal model for the study of autophagy. Here we provide a detailed experimental procedure for the identification of Atg8a interactors, exploiting the iLIR database, followed by the in vitro confirmation of interactions and in situ detection of the respective proteins.