Virulence and signalling mechanisms are regulated by the length of the 3' ends of mRNAs in the rice blast fungus

The results derived from the study carried out by the research groups of Dr. Ane Sesma and Dr. Mark Wilkinson at the CBGP-UPM demonstrate how the variation of the 3 'ends of mRNAs of the rice blast fungus Magnaporthe oryzae can alter the biology of the fungus.

Alternative polyadenylation regulates the 3 ' UTR lengths of cellular RNAs, and consequently the presence of regulatory elements that can control rice infection pathways in the case of the phytopathogenic fungus Magnaporthe oryzae. The authors have carried out a genome-wide sequencing approach to characterise globally the variation of the 3 'ends of the RNAs in the genome of M. oryzae, and have analyzed in particular how the non-coding 3’ end of the messenger RNA of the 14-3-3 protein regulates M. oryzae virulence.

This study also describes how alternative polyadenylation can control turnover and translation rates of messenger RNAs involved in development and environmental adaptation in M. oryzae. These data provide useful information for enhancing genome annotations and for cross‐species comparisons of polyadenylation sites (PAS) and PAS usage within the fungal kingdom and the tree of life.

Original Paper:

Rodríguez-Romero, J; Marconi, M; Ortega-Campayo, V; Demuez, M; Wilkinson, MD; Sesma, A. "Virulence- and signaling-associated genes display a preference for long 3′UTRs during rice infection and metabolic stress in the rice blast fungus". New Phytologist. DOI: 10.1111/nph.15405".