It has previously been shown that mice with systemic autophagy ablation have a life span of 2–3 months and the mortality is due to initial Streptococcus infection and eventual neurodegeneration (Karsli-Uzunbas et al., 2014), whereas, adult mice with whole-body Stk11 deletion survive for up to 6 weeks (Shan et al., 2016). Here, STK11 is linked to streptococcal infection.