Magnaporthe oryzae Raw sequence reads
Magnaporthe oryzae is the most devastating fungal pathogen of rice. Within hours of landing on a leaf, the fungus must coordinate metabolic reprogramming, autophagy and turgor-driven invasion through precisely timed waves of gene expression. While transcriptional and post-translational mechanisms have been intensively studied, the contribution of post-transcriptional RNA decay to this rapid developmental switch remains largely unexplored. Our study uncovers an essential, previously unrecognized role for the Pan2/Pan3 deadenylase complex as a molecular timer that licenses pathogenesis.