Autophagy is a conserved eukaryotic mechanism that mediates the removal of long-lived cytoplasmic macromolecules and damaged organelles via a lysosomal degradative pathway. Recently, a multitude of studies have reported that viral infections may have complex interconnections with the autophagic process. The findings reported here demonstrate that hepatitis B virus (HBV) can enhance the autophagic process in hepatoma cells without promoting protein degradation by the lysosome. Mutation analysis showed that HBV small surface protein (SHBs) was required for HBV to induce autophagy. The overexpression of SHBs was sufficient to induce autophagy. Furthermore, SHBs could trigger unfolded protein responses (UPR), and the blockage of UPR signaling pathways abrogated the SHB-induced lipidation of LC3-I. Meanwhile, the role of the autophagosome in HBV replication was examined. The inhibition of autophagosome formation by the autophagy inhibitor 3-methyladenine (3-MA) or small interfering RNA duplexes targeting the genes critical for autophagosome formation (Beclin1 and ATG5 genes) markedly inhibited HBV production, and the induction of autophagy by rapamycin or starvation greatly contributed to HBV production. Furthermore, evidence was provided to suggest that the autophagy machinery was required for HBV envelopment but not for the efficiency of HBV release. Finally, SHBs partially colocalized and interacted with autophagy protein LC3. Taken together, these results suggest that the host's autophagy machinery is activated during HBV infection to enhance HBV replication.Hepatitis B virus (HBV) is a noncytopathic, enveloped DNA virus that belongs to the family Hepadnaviridae (57, 70). It is one of the most successful human pathogens, with an estimated 2 billion people infected worldwide, of whom 400 million have chronic HBV infection (54). Chronic HBV infection is correlated with a strongly increased risk for the development of liver cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) (49, 54).Effective preventive vaccines against HBV have been available for nearly three decades; however, their effectiveness in preventing blood-borne transmission from an infected mother to her newborn is about 90% (77), and therapeutic vaccines for the treatment of established hepatitis B infection are not available (65, 67). Currently, two types of antiviral therapies are approved: pegylated alpha interferon and nucleoside/nucleotide analogues (60). However, these antivirals cannot completely eradicate the virus, and their efficacy in preventing liver cirrhosis and HCC is limited (21, 64). Thus, the details of the host-virus relationship during HBV infection urgently need to be further clarified to facilitate the development of efficient therapeutic strategies for the control of HBV infection.Autophagy, an evolutionarily conserved intracellular process, involves the formation of a double membrane structure, called the autophagosome, which engulfs long-lived cytoplasmic macromolecules and damaged organelles and delivers them to lysosomes for degrada...