Physiological, Ecological and Genetic Interactions of Rice with Harmful Microbes

Abstract

Rice is one of the most important food crops for mankind and suffers significant crop loss annually due to rice diseases. Availability of genome sequences of rice has served as a springboard to utilize its innate immunity to prevent rice diseases. Knowledge on interactions of rice and rice pathogens has rapidly accumulated. Effective resistance genes have been identified from cultivated, weedy species of rice, and wild rice relatives and their roles in plant innate immunity have been uncovered. Presently, rice diseases are being managed using host resistance genes and pesticides in diverse culture systems around the globe. This chapter presents a simple review of interactions of rice with harmful microbes causing the two major damaging diseases, rice blast and sheath blight. The review is written to target new readers in life sciences. Knowledge and critical literatures on physiological, genetic, and ecological aspects of host-pathogen interactions are presented to gain insights leading to sustainable disease management systems.