Intracellular <i>Staphylococcus aureus</i> eludes selective autophagy by activating a host cell kinase

Autophagy, a catabolic pathway of lysosomal degradation, acts not only as an efficient recycle and survival mechanism during cellular stress, but also as an anti-infective machinery. The human pathogen <i>Staphylococcus aureus</i> (<i>S. aureus</i>) was originally considered solely as an extracellular bacterium, but is now recognized additionally to invade host cells, which might be crucial for persistence. However, the intracellular fate of <i>S. aureus</i> is incompletely understood. Here, we show for the first time induction of selective autophagy by <i>S. aureus</i> infection, its escape from autophagosomes and proliferation in the cytoplasm using live cell imaging. After invasion, <i>S. aureus</i> becomes ubiquitinated and recognized by receptor proteins such as SQSTM1/p62 leading to phagophore recruitment. Yet, <i>S. aureus</i> evades phagophores and prevents further degradation by a MAPK14/p38α MAP kinase-mediated blockade of autophagy. Our study demonstrates a novel bacterial strategy to block autophagy and secure survival inside the host cell.