23Porcine epidemic diarrhea virus (PEDV) is a highly contagious pathogenic virus that 24 causes severe diarrhea and dehydration in pigs of all ages. Deoxynivalenol (DON), the 25 most abundant trichothecene in food and feed, causes vomit and diarrhea in animals 26 and human. However, whether DON exposure could affect PEDV infection remains 27 unknown. Herein, we investigated the impacts of DON on entry and replication of 28 PEDV, morbidity situation of piglets and the mechanisms involved. In vivo, twenty-29 seven piglets infected naturally with PEDV were randomly divided into three groups, 30 receiving the basal diet containing 0, 750 and 1500 μg/kg DON, respectively. We 31 observed significant increases in the diarrhea rates, the villous injury of jejunums and 32 the PEDV proliferation of duodenum, jejunum, ileum and mesenterium of piglets in 33 experimental groups compared with control. Additionally, the autophagosome-like 34 vesicles and the autophagy-related protein expressions were also increased in 35 experimental groups. In vitro, we observed that, approximately 2 hrs post-infection, 36 0.1, 0.5 and 1.0 μM DON promoted PEDV entry (P < 0.05) in IPEC-J2s and resulted 37 in tight junction protein occludin internalization. Knockdown of occludin and 38 CRISPR-Cas9-mediated knockout of LC3B indicated a vital role of autophagy-induced 39 occludin internalization in DON-promoted PEDV entry. We also observed that, 24 hrs 40 post-infection, a significant increase in PEDV replication after 0.1, 0.5 and 1.0 μM 41 DON treatment, along with the induction of a complete autophagy. Specifically, 42 deletion of LC3B indicated a crucial role of autophagy in DON-promoted PEDV . CC-BY 4.0 International license author/funder. It is made available under aThe copyright holder for this preprint (which was not peer-reviewed) is the . https://doi.org/10.1101/852608 doi: bioRxiv preprint 3 43 replication. Pretreatment with SB202190, a p38 signaling inhibitor, abolished the 44 induction of autophagy. Furthermore, downregulation of type I interferon revealed that 45 DON contributed PEDV to escape innate immune. Mechanistically, DON-caused 46 innate immune escape was related to the upregulation of LC3B, which further inhibited 47 STING phosphorylation. Taken together, DON could promote PEDV infection by 48 inducing occludin internalization and innate immune escape via triggering p38-49 mediated autophagy.50 Author summary 53 Porcine epidemic diarrhea (PED), a devastating enteric disease, leads to catastrophic 54 economic loss to the global pig industry. Its primary pathogen is the coronavirus PED 55 virus (PEDV). Growing evidence indicates that pathogen infection is not the only factor 56 of PED outbreaks, other non-infectious factors is also related to this disease. We 57 guessed some ubiquitous substances, such as deoxynivalenol (DON), that lead to pig 58 intestinal epithelial cell stress might encourage the progress and spread of PED. In the 59 present study, the weaning piglets infected naturally with PEDV and the IPEC-J2 cell 60 lin...