The ubiquitin-like modifier FAT10 decorates autophagy-targeted Salmonella and contributes to Salmonella resistance in mice.

Bacterial invasion of eukaryotic cells is counteracted by cell-autonomous innate immune mechanisms including xenophagy. The decoration of cytosolic bacteria by ubiquitylation and binding of galectin-8 leads to recruitment of autophagy adaptors like p62 (also known as SQSTM1), NDP52 (also known as CALCOCO2) and optineurin, which initiate the destruction of bacteria by xenophagy. Here, we show that the functionally barely characterized IFNγ- and TNFα-inducible ubiquitin-like modifier FAT10 (also known as ubiquitin D, UBD), which binds to the autophagy adaptor p62, but has not been shown to associate with pathogens before, is recruited to cytosolic Salmonella Typhimurium in human cells.