A revolutionary tool called the PathoTracer has been developed at the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) and it can identify the exact strain of the bacterium that causes bacterial blight present in a field in a matter of days instead of several months of laboratory work.
A revolutionary tool called the PathoTracer has been developed at the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) and it can identify the exact strain of the bacterium that causes bacterial blight present in a field in a matter of days instead of several months of laboratory work.
“It’s like a paternity test that uses DNA profiling,” said Ricardo Oliva, a plant pathologist at IRRI. “It will not only tell you that you have bacterial blight in your plant. It will tell you the particular strain of the pathogen so that we can recommend varieties resistant to it.”
For more than four years, Dr. Oliva and his team worked on deciphering the genetic code of Xanthomonas oryzae pv. oryzae, the pathogen that causes bacterial blight, to develop the test. Bacterial blight is one of the most serious diseases of rice. The earlier the disease occurs, the higher the yield loss—which could be as much as 70% in vulnerable varieties.
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