A Step-by-step Protocol for Crossing and Marker-Assisted Breeding of Asian and African Rice Varieties.

Improving desirable traits of popular rice varieties is of particular importance for small-scale food producers. Breeding is considered the most ecological and economic approach to improve yield, especially in the context of pest and pathogen-resistant varieties development. Being able to cross rice lines is also a critical step when using current transgene-based genome editing technologies, e.

Closing the information gap between the field and scientific literature for improved disease management- with a focus on rice and bacterial blight.

A path to sustainably reduce world hunger, food insecurity, and malnutrition is to close the crop yield gap, particularly, losses due to pathogens. Breeding resistant crops is key to achieving this goal, an effort requiring collaboration among stakeholders, scientists, breeders, farmers and policymakers. During a disease outbreak, epidemiologists survey the occurrence of a disease after which pathologists investigate mechanisms to stop an infection.

Refinement of rice blast disease resistance QTLs and gene networks through meta-QTL analysis.

Rice blast disease is the most devastating disease constraining crop productivity. Vertical resistance to blast disease is widely studied despite its instability. Clusters of genes or QTLs conferring blast resistance that offer durable horizontal resistance are important in resistance breeding.

Exploring genetic divergence and marker-trait associations for leaffolder (Guenee) resistance in rice landraces.

Rice production faces a significant threat from the rice leaffolder, . To address this challenge, growing resistant varieties stands out as a sustainable and eco-friendly pest management strategy. This necessitates identifying resistant sources and understanding their inheritance patterns through employing DNA markers for marker-assisted resistance breeding.