Prime Minister’s Research Fellowship (PMRF)

Global rice production accounts for 755 million tonnes, annually. Being one of the major staple foods across the world, it is cultivated on 162 million hectares of land in tropical and subtropical zones with variable thermal regimes. Among the different types of rice diseases reported, blast disease causes the most severe constraints for rice production throughout the world. The amount of rice loss due to blast disease annually is sufficient to feed 60 million people. The blast disease is caused by the ascomycete fungus, Magnaporthe oryzae. The most efficient strategy to control this devastating pathogen is by utilizing the host’s immune response or by manipulating the molecular players that cause the host’s vulnerability to the pathogen, which are termed susceptibility genes. Our research focuses on the identification and functional validation of susceptibility genes, which facilitate the pathogen in the process of infection, irrespective of host genotype or Magnaporthe strain. Our project  will advance our understanding of the rice-Magnaporthe pathosystem on the one hand and, on the other hand, help to develop a deregulated Magnaporthe tolerant rice variety..