Evaluating the Longevity of a Potential Biocontrol for the Rice Blast Disease
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Abstract
Rice Blast, caused by the fungal organism Magnaporthe oryzae, is the most important fungal disease of rice and is known to cause yield losses of over $66 billion each year and devastate enough rice to feed 60 million people. With rapidly changing climates and rising global hunger, controlling the Rice Blast disease is increasingly difficult. Currently there are no viable methods to do so as fungicides are expensive, cultural methods ineffective, and the fungus quickly overcomes race specific resistance. This study investigates a prospective biocontrol, Pseudomonas chlororaphis, and strives to determine if genomic mutation can induce ability for M. oryzae to overcome by the bacterium. P. chlororaphis strain EA 105 has shown antagonism to M. oryzae in studies performed at the University of Delaware and has the potential to be an effective biocontrol for the Rice Blast disease, but it is important to ask whether this measure will hold up against mutations. M. oryzae has an incredibly variable genome and has historically been able to quickly overcome host resistance, so it will likely be able to overcome direct antagonism as well. Based on the tendency of M. oryzae to produce diverse mutations, the hypothesis is that genomic mutation will cause M. oryzae to overcome antagonism by the EA 105 strain of P. chlororaphis. To test this hypothesis KJ201 and Guy11 strains of M. oryzae were transformed using a plasmid containing genes encoding for both Green Fluorescent Protein and Hygromycin resistance. The random insertion transformants were subsequently exposed to P. chlororaphis EA 105. An average of 2% of Guy 11 transformants and 9% of KJ201 transformants were able to successfully overcome P. chlororaphis and the hypothesis was confirmed. Further molecular studies are currently being conducted to assess how the gain of function mutation took place to learn more about how M.oryzae responds to biocontrol.
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Poster version awarded first place in CFAES Undergraduate Research Forum Environmental & Plant Sciences Category and second undergraduate poster at the 2019 OSU Plant Science Symposium