Autophagy in the invading pathogen.

Autophagic degradation is of central importance to eukaryotic biology and has been implicated in a diverse array of developmental, differentiation, and disease related events in higher eukaryotes. We recently investigated the significance of autophagy in the opportunistic fungal pathogen Candida albicans. Surprisingly our results demonstrate that autophagy is not required for C. albicans yeast-hypha or chlamydospore differentiation. Furthermore, a Candida mutant blocked in autophagy had no detectable virulence defect during interaction with a macrophage like cell line, or in a murine model of disseminated candidiasis. Herein we consider these results in the context of the pathogenic eukaryote, and raise important questions which remain to be addressed.