Bluetongue virus (BTV) is an important pathogen of wild and domestic ruminants. Despite extensive study in recent decades, the interplay between BTV and host cells is not clearly understood. Autophagy as a cellular adaptive response plays a part in many viral infections. In our study, we found that BTV1 infection triggers the complete autophagic process in host cells, as demonstrated by the appearance of obvious double-membrane autophagosome-like vesicles, GFP-LC3 dots accumulation, the conversion of LC3-I to LC3-II and increased levels of autophagic flux in BSR cells (baby hamster kidney cell clones) and primary lamb lingual epithelial cells upon BTV1 infection. Moreover, the results of a UV-inactivated BTV1 infection assay suggested that the induction of autophagy was dependent on BTV1 replication. Therefore, we investigated the role of autophagy in BTV1 replication. The inhibition of autophagy by pharmacological inhibitors (3-MA, CQ) and RNA interference (siBeclin1) significantly decreased viral protein synthesis and virus yields. In contrast, treating BSR cells with rapamycin, an inducer of autophagy, promoted viral protein expression and the production of infectious BTV1. These findings lead us to conclude that autophagy is activated by BTV1 and contributes to its replication, and provide novel insights into BTV-host interactions.
