A Vitamin for Autophagy

Recent discoveries have revealed the importance of the vitamin D-dependent generation of antimicrobial peptides in human host defense against Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Now, Yuk et al. (2009) show how vitamin D induces autophagy and mediates colocalization of Mycobacterium tuberculosis and antimicrobial peptides within an autophagolysosome, leading to killing of the bacterium.