Abstract: 【Objective】Autophagy plays an important role in Eukaryotic cells adapting adversities. Nevertheless, there're few researches into autophagy and its functions in pine wood nematode(PWN), which is the pathogeny of pine wilt disease. 【Method】Our laboratory previously found that there existed autophagy in PWNs, thus, we cloned genes BxATG1 and BxATG8 of them, as the genes were related to autophagy. Based on that, this study discussed the impact of autophagy on PWNs' growth and development, as well as its roles during the interaction between PWNs and pines. 【Result】After being treated with Rapamycin, which was the autophagy inducer, the expression of BxATG1 and BxATG8 rose significantly, which demonstrated that the exogenous autophagy induction had promoted the occurrence of autophagy. Besides, the exogenous autophagy inducer notably helped with the boost in PWNs' feeding rate and reproduction. What's more, after autophagy induction, PWNs' viability under starving condition was stimulated obviously, and the accumulation of fats also improved. These facts showed that autophagy played an important role in the growth and development of PWNs. qRT-PCR results of early interaction between PWNs and pines showed that, the occurrence of autophagy reached its climax after infecting the pine seedlings for 12 hours, which implied that, during the course of PWNs infecting the pines, autophagy was helpful for PWNs to go through the early stage of plant's resistance response.【Conclusion】Induction of autophagy promoted the occurrence of PWN's autophagy, and autophagy played an important role in promoting the growth and development of Bursaphelenchus xylophilus. In the process of pine wood nematode infestation, autophagy can help the nematode adapt to the early resistance of pine.