Autophagosome formation in response to intracellular bacterial invasion

Autophagy is an intracellular bulk degradation system in which double-membrane vesicles, called autophagosomes, engulf cytoplasmic components and later fuse with lysosomes to degrade the autophagosome content. Although autophagy was initially thought a non-selective process, recent studies have clarified that it can selectively target intracellular bacteria and function as an intracellular innate immune system that suppresses bacterial survival. A key mechanism for the recognition of cytosol-invading bacteria is ubiquitination, and the recognition of the ubiquitinated target by the autophagy machinery can be accomplished multiple ways. In this review, we discuss recent findings regarding the induction of autophagosome formation in response to intracellular bacterial invasion.