Autophagy-mediated major histocompatibility complex (MHC) class I presentation can follow either the conventional MHC class I pathway or a recently described vacuolar pathway. In the vacuolar pathway, protein degradation is effected by lysosomal proteases, peptide exchange takes place with recirculating MHC complexes and the newly formed peptide-MHC complexes reach the cell surface by the endocytic pathway. This pathway is independent of the proteasome and the transporter associated with antigen processing (TAP) complex, but generates the same, or a similar, epitope as that from the conventional MHC class I pathway. Here, we discuss different mechanisms by which autophagy mediates MHC class I-restricted antigen presentation, which is crucial to its role in the control of intracellular pathogens.
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