ATG7 and infection: Wild-type mice grew with an progressive increase in weight until around age of 60 weeks (Figure 1D, left panel), whereas mice with Atg7 deletion in the hematopoietic system displayed a growth retardation starting at early age of 6 weeks (Figure 1D, right panel) and had a significantly shortened lifespan of 120 days at maximum (Figure 1E), without detectable symptoms of a known disease or infection from immunohistological examination of the non-hematopoietic organs by Hematoxylin and Eosin (HE) staining (Figure 1F).