Plasmodium falciparum, the most fatal causative agent of human malaria, undergoes major remodeling of subcellular structures during its development and encounters various conditions such as nutrient limitation, changes in pH, temperature and hypoxia during its complex life cycle.Autophagy is a regulatory process involved in mediating cellular differentiation and homeostasis in higher eukaryotes.Role of autophagy in Plasmodium falciparum is poorly understood and is controversial.We demonstrate that the constitutive autophagy in this parasite is quite robust and is essential for the development and differentiation of the parasite during the intraerythrocytic cycle.Further, the parasite responds to nutrient limitations.The expression of PfAtg8 is induced under starvation conditions for short durations while prolonged starvation results in decreased PfAtg8 expression and typical features of autophagy cell death.The starvation induced expression PfAtg8 is inhibited in presence of the autophagy inhibitor, 3-methyl adenine(3MA).We have also characterized other proteins present in autophagy machinery of Plasmodium falciparum.Thus deciphering the details of autophagy machinery of this apicomplexan might pave ways for novel therapeutics.