Tanzania: New rice could fight disease outbreak in Africa

The international research consortium “Healthy Cultures” led by Professor Dr. Wolf B. Frommer of the Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf (HHU) is developing disease-resistant rice varieties. In eLife, the authors now report the discovery of a recent bacterial outbreak in Tanzania and describe how they modified an African rice variety to make it resistant to the pathogen. Bacterial rice rust, caused by the bacterium Xanthomonas oryzae pathovar oryzae (Xoo for short), is responsible for devastating crop losses among rice farmers each year. Above all, it threatens the livelihoods of smallholder farmers in Asia and Africa and is responsible for malnutrition and hunger in the affected regions. Although bacterial rust has not been considered a major threat to rice production in Tanzania until now, fields in the Morogoro region of eastern Tanzania were detected in 2019, partially showing severe damage from the disease. Subsequent research further indicated that the pathogen had already ...