Durable rice blast resistance through genomic analysis of the host-pathogen interaction

大米提供了人类消耗热量的23%，这个数字在许多发展中国家甚至更高。事实上，大米是世界上至少70%最贫困人口的主要主食。在撒哈拉以南非洲，大多数国家在其粮食安全政策中将大米作为战略作物，以满足其不断增长的城市人口的需要。撒哈拉以南非洲水稻生产的最大限制之一是一种叫做稻瘟病的毁灭性疾病。在这些地区，这种疾病可造成高达50%的水稻收成损失，给农民造成严重的经济问题，并导致大米短缺和对高价进口大米的更大需求。这个项目的目的是利用基因组测序来确定引起稻瘟病的病原体种群的特征，以便确定其可变性和对最广泛种植的水稻品种致病的能力。然后，我们的目标是利用这些知识从世界范围内的水稻种群，特别是在非洲生长条件下特别培育的水稻品种中确定新的抗性来源。然后，我们将使用现代的、标记辅助的植物育种方法来创造耐久的水稻品种，供撒哈拉以南非洲的种植者使用。在项目过程中，我们将培训四名博士后研究人员，他们将在该地区花费大量时间工作，并传播分子遗传学，基因组学和生物信息学方面的技能。我们还将培训两名来自撒哈拉以南非洲的博士生，他们将在每个成员实验室工作，并接受现代遗传和基因组技术的培训，以控制世界上最具破坏性的植物疾病之一。

Rice provides 23% of calories consumed by mankind, and this figure is even higher in many developing countries. In fact, rice is the primary dietary staple for at least 70% of the world's poorest people. In Sub-Saharan Africa, most countries have adopted rice as a strategic crop in their food security policies in order to meet the needs of their growing urban populations. One of the biggest constraints on rice production in Sub-Saharan Africa is a devastating disease called rice blast. This disease can cause losses of up to 50% of the rice harvest in these regions, causing severe economic problems for farmers and leading to rice shortages and a greater need for importation of rice at high prices. This project aims to characterise populations of the pathogen that causes rice blast using genome sequencing, in order to determine its variability and capacity to cause disease on the most widely grown rice varieties. We then aim to use this knowledge to identify novel sources of resistance from world-wide rice stocks and, in particular, rice varieties especially bred to thrive in African growing conditions. We will then use modern, marker-assisted plant breeding approaches to create durably resistant rice varieties for use by growers in Sub-Saharan Africa. During the course of the project we will carry out training of four post-doctoral research fellows, who will spend significant amounts of time working in the region, and who will disseminate skills in molecular genetics, genomics and bioinformatics. We will also train two PhD students from Sub-Saharan Africa who will work in each member laboratory and receive training in modern genetic and genomic techniques applied to controlling one of the world's most devastating plant diseases.