Coping with Stress: Insights into How the Rice Blast Fungus Manages Reactive Oxygen Species

Rice is a staple crop worldwide, and we will need to produce 35% more by the year 2025 in order to feed an ever-growing human population. One of the many roadblocks to achieving this goal is the rice blast fungus, Magnaporthe oryzae, which can kill enough rice each year to feed at least two million people. Our lab studies the early interactions between this fungus and two of its hosts, rice and barley. Specifically, we focus on strategies that the fungus uses to combat a plant defense weapon, reactive oxygen species (ROS). It is important to understand the varied roles of ROS in plant-pathogenic interactions, if we ever hope to translate them into control strategies. Our lab has dissected a major, conserved fungal pathway for 'coping' with stresses such as ROS, and through confocal microscopy and other analyses, we are starting to better comprehend the complexity of ROS in the rice blast disease.