Editorial: Xenophagy: Its role in pathogen infections

Abstract

Editorial on the Research TopicXenophagy: Its role in pathogens infections Autophagy, a lysosome-dependent catabolic pathway, exists in eukaryotic cells and involve many biological functions such as cell differentiation, starvation tolerance and immune defense. It is defined as the process of specific identification and clearance of intracellular pathogenic microorganisms by eukaryotic cells, which is an effective way for immune cells to exercise host defense (Suares et al., 2021). Autophagy can degrade relatively large substrates, such as protein aggregates, organelles and invading pathogens. Based on the different ways of autophagolysosome degradation, it can be divided into three types: molecular chaperone-mediated autophagy (CMA), microautophagy and macroautophagy. Macroautophagy is the fusion of lysosomes and vesicles containing substances to degrade a variety of intracellular components, such as peptides, organelles, intracellular protein aggregates and pathogens. The process of degrading invading pathogens through macroautophagy is also known as xenophagy (Gatica et al., 2018).Xenophagy is a unique and selective autophagy that can resist a variety of intracellular pathogens, such as viruses, bacteria and parasites. It protects host cells from lethal damage, and plays a key role in innate immunity (Cong et al., 2020). Xenophagy, promotes macrophage clearance of cytoplasmic invaders after pathogenic DNA exposure or phagocytic membrane disruption by pathogens (Shao et al., 2022). A total of 8 papers are collected in this topic, expounding the role of xenophagy in animal viral and bacterial infections. Autophagy and animal virus infectionIncreasing evidence suggests a link between autophagy and virus. This study summarized the interactions between autophagy and viruses in porcine, poultry, ruminants and other animals, such as Pseudorabies virus, Porcine parvovirus, Footand-mouth disease virus, etc (Jiang et al.). Although autophagy promotes the replication Frontiers in Cellular and Infection Microbiology frontiersin.org 01