Crop Improvement Lab

About Our Lab

Our laboratory is interested in studying the mechanism of bacterial virulence and plant defense using Xanthomonas oryzae pv. oryzae (Xoo) and rice as a model system. In the area of rice functional genomics, our group Plant Defense. Pathogen Strategies. Better Crops.is working towards identification and characterization of genes involved in important agronomic traits in rice such as disease (bacterial blight, sheath blight) and pest (yellow stem borer) resistance, abiotic stress resistance, higher yield, early maturation etc. We are attempting to develop novel markers for some of these important agronomic traits using genetic methodologies, NGS and bioinformatic analysis. The novel markers will be useful for the development of newer rice varieties.