''Xanthomonas oryzae'' is a species of

bacteria Bacteria (; : bacterium) are ubiquitous, mostly free-living organisms often consisting of one Cell (biology), biological cell. They constitute a large domain (biology), domain of Prokaryote, prokaryotic microorganisms. Typically a few micr ...

. The major host of the bacterium is

rice Rice is a cereal grain and in its Domestication, domesticated form is the staple food of over half of the world's population, particularly in Asia and Africa. Rice is the seed of the grass species ''Oryza sativa'' (Asian rice)—or, much l ...

. The species contains two

pathovar A pathovar is a bacterial strain or set of strains with the same or similar characteristics, that is differentiated at infrasubspecific level from other strains of the same species or subspecies on the basis of distinctive pathogenicity to one o ...

s, neither of which is native to Europe: ''X. o.'' pv. ''oryzae'' and ''X. o.'' pv. ''oryzicola''. ''Xanthomonas oryzae'' epidemics can cause yield losses ranging from 2-74%, and the bacteria can be carried on rice seeds, causing further disease spread. The host resistance gene, '' Xa21'', from '' Oryza longistaminata'', is integrated into the genome of ''

Oryza sativa ''Oryza sativa'', having the common name Asian cultivated rice, is the much more common of the two rice species cultivated as a cereal, the other species being ''Oryza glaberrima, O. glaberrima'', African rice. It was History of rice cultivation ...

'' for its broad-range resistance to rice leaf blight caused by ''X. o.'' pv. ''oryzae''.

References

External links

Xanthomonas Genomics Resource web-based database and communication forum to facilitate genomic approaches to the study of xanthomonads
oryzae Bacterial plant pathogens and diseases Rice diseases Bacteria described in 1922 {{plant-disease-stub