Sorting Nexin 5 Mediates Virus-Induced Autophagy and Immunity

Autophagy, a lysosomal degradation pathway, plays an essential role in multiple aspects of immunity, including immune system development, regulation of innate and adaptive immune and inflammatory responses, selective degradation of intracellular microbes, and host protection against infectious diseases(1,2). Unlike autophagy induction by stimuli such as nutrient deprivation and mTOR suppression, little is known about how autophagosomal biogenesis is initiated in mammalian cells in response to viral infection. We performed genome-wide siRNA screens and found that the endosomal protein sorting nexin 5 (SNX5)(3,4) is essential for virus-induced, but not for basal, stress- or endosome-induced, autophagy. We showed that SNX5 deletion increases cellular susceptibility to viral infection in vitro, and that Snx5 knockout in mice enhances lethality after infection with multiple human viruses. Mechanistically, SNX5 interacts with beclin 1 and ATG14-containing Class III phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase (PI3KC3) complex 1 (PI3KC3-C1), increases the lipid kinase activity of purified PI3KC3-C1, and is required for endosomal generation of PI3P and recruitment of the PI3P-binding protein WIPI2 to virion-containing endosomes. These findings identify a context- and organelle-specific mechanism – SNX5-dependent PI3KC3-C1 activation at endosomes – for autophagy initiation during viral infection.