Molecular Pathogens, 2025, Vol.16, No.2, 45-52 http://microbescipublisher.com/index.php/mp 45 Feature Review Open Access Advances in Rice Breeding for Resistance to Fungal and Bacterial Diseases Xinguang Cai Modern Agricultural Research Center, Cuixi Academy of Biotechnology, Zhuji, 311800, China Corresponding email: xinguang.cai@cuixi.org Molecular Pathogens, 2025, Vol.16, No.2 doi: 10.5376/mp.2025.16.0006 Received: 10 Jan., 2025 Accepted: 20 Feb., 2025 Published: 18 Mar., 2025 Copyright © 2025 Cai, This is an open access article published under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Preferred citation for this article: Cai X.G., 2025, Advances in rice breeding for resistance to fungal and bacterial diseases, Molecular Pathogens, 16(2): 45-52 (doi: 10.5376/mp.2025.16.0006) Abstract This study systematically reviews recent advances in breeding strategies aimed at enhancing rice resistance to major fungal pathogens, such as Magnaporthe oryzae (rice blast) and Rhizoctonia solani (sheath blight), as well as bacterial pathogens, including Xanthomonas oryzae pv. oryzae (bacterial leaf blight). The role of resistance (R) genes, quantitative trait loci (QTLs), and their integration into elite cultivars through marker-assisted selection (MAS), genomic selection, and gene pyramiding is discussed. Research indicates that cutting-edge molecular techniques, such as CRISPR genome editing, hold significant potential for developing broad-spectrum disease-resistant rice varieties. Environmental and agronomic management practices have been shown to significantly influence disease incidence and resistance expression, with field trials and successful breeding programs further validating the effectiveness and feasibility of these strategies. This study underscores the importance of integrating traditional breeding approaches with modern biotechnological tools to achieve durable resistance, ensuring sustainable rice production and effective disease management. Keywords Rice disease resistance; Rice blast; Bacterial leaf blight; Resistance genes; Genome editing 1 Introduction Rice blast and white leaf blight are one of the most serious rice diseases in the world. Rice blast is a fungal disease that can occur at almost any growth stage of rice. Once the environment is suitable, it may leave the entire rice field pellet free (Zarbafi and Ham, 2019; Sahu et al., 2022). Bacterial diseases of rice, such as bacterial blight and bacterial strabular plaque, are caused by white leaf blight bacteria and will also greatly reduce rice yields (Jiang et al., 2020; Ji et al., 2022). These bacteria change very quickly and can often break through existing disease-resistant genes, which is very troublesome to prevent and treat. In order to ensure stable rice yield and food security, cultivating disease-resistant varieties is a key method. Past research has shown that combining disease-resistant genes can effectively control these diseases (Liu et al., 2021). However, new bacterial variants continue to appear, so we have to continue to work hard to cultivate rice varieties that can resist various diseases for a long time. Now, biotechnology like molecular breeding and CRISPR/Cas9 has brought many new opportunities to rice disease-resistant breeding and has made green and sustainable planting more promising (Kumar et al., 2018). This study introduces new advances in rice antifungal and antibacterial breeding. The main contents include the discovery and utilization of disease-resistant genes, the application of molecular breeding technology, and the difficulties encountered in improving lasting resistance. I hope these contents can provide reference for future rice breeding and contribute to global food security. 2 Fungal Diseases Affecting Rice and Current Resistance Strategies 2.1 Rice blast (Magnaporthe oryzae) and resistance breeding approaches Rice blast is caused by a fungus and is one of the most serious diseases of rice in the world. This disease is difficult to prevent because it will quickly lose resistance to rice, causing unstable rice yields in many places. To deal with this problem, researchers have used many molecular breeding methods, such as QTL localization, marker-assisted selection, resistance gene combination, and gene transformation. These methods can introduce
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