Abstract: Objective To identify the role of EIS gene of mycobacterium tuberculosis in the process of autophage in human pulmonary adenocarcinoma cell line A549．Methods Recombinat plasmid pcDNA3.1-EIS-3flag was constructed and contransfected with GFP-LC3 which is a flurescent autophagosome expression plasmid in human pulmonary adenocarcinoma cells A549. At 24 h after contransfection and treated with rapamycin which is a classical autophage inducer，the Autophagy fluorescent dots were observed and counted under the fluorescence microscope.We further detected the EIS protein and autophagic protein by Western blotting. Results The recombinant plasmid Pcdna3.1-EIS-3flag was successfully constructed ,and it decreased the fluorescene dots of autophage . Moreover，the EIS protein could inhibit autophagical protein by Western blot result. Conclusion EIS gene of mycobacterium tuberculosis can inhibit the initiation of autophage，which plays a key role in the persistency of tuberculosis.

Key words: mycobacterium tuberculosis, EIS gene, autophage