RT Journal Article SR Electronic T1 The appressorium of Magnaporthe oryzae remains mitotically active during post-penetration hyphal growth in rice cells JF bioRxiv FD Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory SP 077669 DO 10.1101/077669 A1 Kiersun Jones A1 Cory B. Jenkinson A1 Jie Zhu A1 Sara Dorhmi A1 Chang Hyun Khang YR 2016 UL http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2016/09/26/077669.abstract AB To investigate the mitotic dynamics of an appressorium, we used time-lapse confocal imaging of a fluorescence-based mitotic reporter strain of Magnaporthe oryzae. We present evidence that: (i) appressoria remain viable and mitotically active after host penetration, (ii) appressorial mitosis, like invasive hyphal mitosis, is semi-closed, (iii) sister chromatids separate within the appressorium, (iv) a mitotic appressorial nucleus undergoes extreme constriction and elongation as it migrates through the penetration peg in a manner analogous to mitosis during cell-to-cell movement of invasive hyphae. These results provide new insight into the potential roles of the appressorium after host penetration and highlight the unique mitotic dynamics during rice blast infection.