title: The role of autophagy in intracellular pathogen nutrient acquisition.
abstract: Following entry into host cells intracellular pathogens must simultaneously evade innate host defense mechanisms and acquire energy and anabolic substrates from the nutrient-limited intracellular environment. Most of the potential intracellular nutrient sources are stored within complex macromolecules that are not immediately accessible by intracellular pathogens. To obtain nutrients for proliferation, intracellular pathogens must compete with the host cell for newly-imported simple nutrients or degrade host nutrient storage structures into their constituent components (fatty acids, carbohydrates, and amino acids). It is becoming increasingly evident that intracellular pathogens have evolved a wide variety of strategies to accomplish this task. One recurrent microbial strategy is to exploit host degradative processes that break down host macromolecules into simple nutrients that the microbe can use. Herein we focus on how a subset of bacterial, viral, and eukaryotic pathogens leverage the host process of autophagy to acquire nutrients that support their growth within infected cells.
authors.affiliation: Department of Microbiology and Immunology, School of Medicine, University of North Carolina Chapel Hill, NC, USA.
authors.forename: Shaun
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Steele
authors.affiliation: Department of Microbiology and Immunology, School of Medicine, University of North Carolina Chapel Hill, NC, USA.
authors.forename: Jason
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Brunton
authors.affiliation: Department of Microbiology and Immunology, School of Medicine, University of North Carolina Chapel Hill, NC, USA.
authors.forename: Thomas
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Kawula
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001343:Autophagy; D018407:Bacterial Physiological Phenomena; D005057:Eukaryotic Cells / Q000502:physiology*; D054884:Host-Pathogen Interactions; D006801:Humans; D018406:Virus Physiological Phenomena
keywords: autophagy; immune evasion; intracellular pathogens; nutrient acquisition; xenophagy