Brucella “Hitches a Ride” with Autophagy

Autophagy involves lysosomal-mediated degradation of cellular components and contributes to host immunity. Some pathogens avoid autophagy-mediated killing, while others exploit it to acquire host cell nutrients. Starr et al. reveal that the intracellular bacterial pathogen Brucella abortus can “hitch a ride” with autophagy, subverting autophagy machinery to spread from cell to cell (Starr et al., 2012)