Autophagy promotes p72 degradation and capsid disassembly during the early phase of African swine fever virus infection

During viral infections, autophagy functions as a cell-intrinsic defense mechanism by facilitating the delivery of virions or viral components to the endosomal/lysosomal pathway for degradation. In this study, we report that internalized African swine fever virus (ASFV) virions enter autolysosomes during the early phase of viral infection. Autophagy selectively targets the major capsid protein p72 within the ASFV virion. The ASFV p72 protein undergoes modification through ubiquitination at the C-terminus, a process mediated by the E3 ubiquitin ligase Stub1. Subsequently, ubiquitinated p72 is recognized by the autophagy receptor SQSTM1/p62 through its ubiquitin-binding domain. Stub1 facilitates the ubiquitination and degradation of p72 in an HSPA8-dependent manner