Autophagy, an evolutionarily conserved cargo degradation process, is responsible to remove superfluous and unwanted cytoplasmic materials and maintain cellular homeostasis. Autophagy can be highly selective and target specific cargoes by utilizing multiple cargo receptors, which bind both ubiquitinated cargoes and autophagosomes. Mounting evidence has revealed the deep involvement of selective autophagy in innate immunity upon pathogen invasion, including eliminating microbial pathogens, initiating the anti-microbe responses, and inhibiting excessive immune responses. Given the importance of selective autophagy in innate immunity, how cargo receptors deliver pathogens and intracellular host constitutes to autophagosomes during infection remains to be elucidated. In this review, we summarize current evidence for the regulation of innate immunity by selective autophagy and try to elucidate the mechanisms employed by cargo receptor network in mediating diverse innate immune responses.
Keywords: Cargo receptor; Immune response; Selective autophagy; Ubiquitination.