title: Autophagic cell death and its importance for fungal developmental biology and pathogenesis.
abstract: In order to cause disease in plants, many fungal pathogens develop a specialized structure called an appressorium. We have recently shown that the rice blast fungus Magnaporthe grisea undergoes a regulated form of programmed cell death during appressorium development involving autophagy. Significantly, this form of cell death is a prerequisite for plant infection and fungal pathogenesis and part of a growing body of evidence implicating autophagy as a key process in fungal developmental biology.
authors.affiliation: University of Exeter, School of Biosciences, Exeter, UK.
authors.forename: Claire
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Veneault-Fourrey
authors.forename: Nicholas J
authors.initials: NJ
authors.lastname: Talbot
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001343:Autophagy; D017353:Gene Deletion; D005800:Genes, Fungal; D020082:Magnaporthe / Q000166:cytology / Q000254:growth & development* / Q000472:pathogenicity*; D012275:Oryza / Q000382:microbiology; D010935:Plant Diseases / Q000382:microbiology; D014617:Vacuoles / Q000378:metabolism