An international workshop entitled “Applicable Solutions Against Rice Blast in Asia” will be jointly organized by JIRCAS and the Food and Fertilizer Technology Center (FFTC) as online conference at 10:00-17:30 (Japan time) on September 18, 2020.

Rice blast is estimated to cause damage equivalent to US$ 2 billion or 1% of annual rice production, and for many years, many studies have been conducted in controlling the disease. Although the mechanism of pathogenicity of blast race and the development of resistance among rice varieties have been clarified recently by molecular biology approaches, these studies are not necessarily connected to control technologies on-site, and more time is required before the results can be applied in the field.

Therefore, JIRCAS has been collaborating with researchers in developing regions in Asia and Africa since 2016, and has established the ‘Blast Research Network for Stable Rice Production’ to develop and distribute a differential system that facilitates the identification of resistance in varieties and pathogenicity of blast isolates, which could provide the basis for pathology and breeding research.

So far, the research network has been pursuing the (1) development of a standard differential system, (2) identification of global mutation of blast races, (3) elucidation of mutations associated with blast resistance in rice germplasm, (4) development of differential varieties, (5) genetic improvement of varieties using differential system and novel resistance genes.

In this workshop, we would like to discuss the future directions for development of stable control technology using these information, methods, and materials in order to address the needs of farmers on-site and researchers tackling the disease. 

Details are available here. The workshop is open to all upon pre-registration. Please register here by September 11, 2020.

Contributor: FUKUTA Yoshimichi (TARC)