RNA metabolism and regulation of virulence programs in fungi

The development of RNA imaging techniques and the establishment of systems biology approaches, together with the improvement of large-scale RNA-protein crosslinking immunoprecipitation protocols have enormously expanded our knowledge of RNA networks and the function of RNA-binding proteins in metazoans and model yeasts. In pathogenic fungi, the biological role of the vast majority of RNA-binding proteins and non-coding RNAs is still largely unknown. However, many RNA-dependent mechanisms which shape fungal pathogenicity have been defined. Here, advances made in this field are reviewed and further theories of biological significance are discussed in the light of latest findings.