Molecular characterization of pathogenic and non pathogenic strains of Xanthomonas oryzae

Abstract

Rice is the staple food for over half of the world population. According to one study, 20% of the per capita energy and 13% protein in the world comes from rice alone. This plant (Oryza sativa) belongs to grass family. Seed of this plant is the part for consumption and of high nutritional values. Rice is cultivated extensively throughout the world and is considered second most important crop after wheat. Two most important species of rice namely Oryza sativa (Asian) and Oryza glaberima (African) are cultivated extensively to obtain the monocot seed. Rice is normally grown as an annual crop in tropical regions. This plant prefers semi-aquatic conditions even though it can flourish as perennial under waterless conditions. This crop is versatile with a range of regimes implied to soil and water. Depending on the environmental conditions and local facilities available rice crops can be grown as irrigated crop, lowland and rain-fed crop, upland crop and flood prone crop. Traditional methods of rice cultivation, particularly in India, include rising of young seedlings in nursery and transplanting in to the fields. Fields are then flooded followed by setting of young seedlings. In this process proper channeling and damming of water is taken care off to avoid damage. While flooding is mandatory, in some methods, cultivation is done on dry flat fields. Apart from this, the rice crop requires a temperature above 200C (not more than 400C; optimum 300C) and a solar radiation of 45 days after harvest. All varieties of rice including raw, wild, brown rice and polished rice are consumed newlineworldwide. According to one study, the world consumption of rice is 531.6 million metric ton in the year 2009 and is prone to increase even further. In the year 2012 China stood first in rice production with an annual output of 204.3 million metric ton followed by India (152.6 million metric ton). newline