Abstract: The cellular process of autophagy has been proposed to help kill Mycobacterium tuberculosis. But although the autophagy gene Atg5 is key to host immunity, other autophagy genes do not affect the outcome of tuberculosis. See Letter p.565 It's widely assumed — based on data from cell culture and mouse models — that autophagy is an essential mechanism in controlling Mycobacterium tuberculosis infection. Christina Stallings and colleagues now show that this is not the case. They find that although the autophagy gene Atg5 is key to host immunity, other autophagy genes do not affect the outcome of tuberculosis. Rather, the autophagy factor ATG5 protects mice from M. tuberculosis infection by regulating neutrophil influx and tissue damage.