Impaired cellular energy metabolism contributes to bluetongue-virus-induced autophagy

Bluetongue virus (BTV) has been found to trigger autophagy to favor its replication, but the underlying mechanisms have not been clarified. Here, we show that cellular energy metabolism is involved in BTV-induced autophagy. Cellular ATP synthesis was impaired by BTV1 infection, causing metabolic stress, which was responsible for activation of autophagy, since the conversion of LC3 and aggregation of GFP-LC3 (autophagy markers) were suppressed when infection-caused energy depletion was reversed via MP (metabolic substrate) treatment. The reduced virus yields with MP further supported this view. Overall, our findings suggest that BTV1-induced disruption of cellular energy metabolism contributes to autophagy, and this provides new insights into BTV-host interactions.