Molecular Pathogens, 2025, Vol.16, No.4, 171-181 http://microbescipublisher.com/index.php/mp 171 Research Insight Open Access Case Study: Successful Breeding of Rice Varieties Resistant to Bacterial Blight Dapeng Zhang1, Zhonggang Li 2 1 Hier Rice Research Center, Hainan Institute of Tropical Agricultural Resources, Sanya, 572025, Hainan, China 2 Tropical Specialty Crops Research Center, Hainan Institute of Tropical Agricultural Resouces, Sanya, 572025, Hainan, China Corresponding author: zhonggang.li@hitar.org Molecular Pathogens, 2025, Vol.16, No.4 doi: 10.5376/mp.2025.16.0018 Received: 26 May, 2025 Accepted: 08 Jul., 2025 Published: 29 Jul., 2025 Copyright © 2025 Zhang and Li, This is an open access article published under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Preferred citation for this article: Zhang D.P., and Li Z.G., 2025, Case study: successful breeding of rice varieties resistant to bacterial blight, Molecular Pathogens, 16(4): 171-181 (doi: 10.5376/mp.2025.16.0018) Abstract Bacterial stripe disease is an important bacterial disease that affects rice yield and quality. It occurs seriously in rice crop areas such as Asia and poses a threat to food security. Cultivating disease-resistant varieties is considered to be the most cost-effective means to prevent and treat the disease. This study summarizes the harm, pathogenic biological characteristics and prevalence laws of bacterial plaque disease in global rice production, and explains the genetic basis, main disease-resistant genes and their mechanism of action of rice disease-resistant breeding. At the same time, the achievements and experiences in rice bacterial disease resistance breeding in Asia, Africa and the Americas were compared. By a detailed analysis of a case of successful breeding of a new rice variety with bacterial resistant stripe disease, it introduces its breeding background, technical route, disease resistance and agronomic trait performance. Finally, the future development direction of rice disease-resistant breeding is discussed. Keywords Rice; Bacterial stripe disease; Disease-resistant breeding; Gene editing; Molecular marker 1 Introduction Rice is a staple food crop for about half of the world's population. Its yield and stability are directly related to food security, but pests and diseases, especially diseases, are still one of the main factors that threaten the stable and increasing rice production. Among them, bacterial diseases caused by Chloromonas spp. are seriously harmful to rice production, including bacterial leaf streak (BLS) and bacterial blight (BB). Bacterial stripe disease is widely prevalent in rice areas in Asia, and has become increasingly serious in recent years; outbreaks have also been reported in some areas of Africa, which has become a new potential threat (Gupt et al., 2021). This disease can lead to a reduction in rice yield, generally causing a yield loss of about 20% to 30%, and in severe cases, the loss can be as high as more than 50%. In addition, disease infection will reduce the quality of rice, causing the grains to be thin or the quality will be reduced. Given that chemical pesticides often have poor effect on bacterial diseases and are prone to resistance, breeding and planting disease-resistant rice varieties is considered to be the most economical, effective and environmentally friendly prevention and control strategy. In recent years, with the development of rice genomics and molecular biotechnology, disease-resistant breeding has entered the era of molecular assistance and genetic engineering, and people have made many progress in the excavation of disease-resistant genes, analysis of genetic mechanisms, and the application of new breeding technologies. In particular, molecular marker-assisted selection significantly accelerates the polymerization of disease-resistant genes, while gene editing technology provides a new way to cultivate broad-spectrum, long-lasting disease-resistant varieties (Ni et al., 2021). This study will discuss the disease-resistant breeding of bacterial strabular plaque disease in rice: introduce the pathogens and epidemic characteristics of bacterial strabular plaque disease, as well as its impact on rice growth and yield, and provide a background basis for disease-resistant breeding. The scientific basis of rice disease-resistant breeding is reviewed, including the discovery of disease-resistant genes, resistance genetic mechanisms and resistance evaluation methods. Through the analysis of a successful breeding case, we will deeply analyze the cultivation process and effects of new disease-resistant varieties. Finally, discuss the promotion and application of disease-resistant varieties and the socio-economic impacts, and put forward future development
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