Scientific Publication

A SWEET solution to rice blight

author(s) Varshney, R K - Godwin, I D - Mohapatra, T - Jones, J D G - McCouch, S R
from International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT)
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Varshney, R K and Godwin, I D and Mohapatra, T and Jones, J D G and McCouch, S R (2019) A SWEET solution to rice blight. Nature Biotechnology (TSI), 37 (11). pp. 1280-1282. ISSN 1087-0156

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Abstract

Bacterial blight is an important disease of rice that is particularly destructive in Southeast Asia and sub-Saharan Africa, exacerbated by the heavy rains of the monsoon seasons. Estimated crop loss due to bacterial blight may be as high as 75%, with millions of hectares of rice affected annually. In this issue, an international team of researchers describes the use of CRISPR editing to generate rice plants that are broadly resistant to the main pathogen that causes rice blight, Xanthomonas oryzae pv. oryzae (Xoo)1. To enhance the durability and management of resistance, the team has also developed a kit to trace the disease, and its virulence and resistance alleles2

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