To determine the role of HDAC6 in the innate response to bacterial infection, we explored the impact of HDAC6 deficiency on the response of myeloid cells to Lm. Our results reveal that Hdac6-/- BMDCs are less efficient than Hdac6+/+ at clearing Lm. This is due to defective maturation of phagosome-contained bacteria. The gene discussed is HDAC6; the disease is bacterial infectious disease.