Genome-Edited Rice Shows Resistance to Bacterial Blight in East Africa

Using genome editing, the "Healthy Crops" consortium, in collaboration with the Kenya Agricultural and Livestock Research Organization (KALRO) developed an innovative strategy to combat bacterial blight (BB) in rice. If approved for use by farmers in Kenya, the BB-resistant rice varieties are expected to increase productivity and reduce yield losses associated with the disease in the affected rice-growing regions.

In 2019, members of the Healthy Crops team identified an outbreak of BB in Tanzania caused by invasive Asian variants of the bacterium Xanthomonas oryzae pv. oryzae (Xoo) which spread rapidly, causing an estimated yield loss of 13–20%.

The starting point for the Healthy Crops researchers is the bacteria's nutrient supply. The Xoo bacteria have a set of “keys” that can open the “pantry” of the plants. When the bacterium injects one of these “key” proteins into rice cells, it leads to increased production of a transporter, which releases sugar in the bacteria's neighborhood. This sugar serves as nutrition and is essential for the multiplication and virulence of the bacteria. However, as the bacteria use the sugar, the plants have nothing left to use and ultimately die.

The research team has succeeded in changing the “locks” via genome editing, making the plants resistant to all known Xoo strains currently prevalent in Asia and Africa. Professor Bing Yang from the University of Missouri who developed the editing approach, states: “The combination of two different sets of enzymes for editing enabled us to develop a robust resistance.”

For more details, read the news article on the Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf website.