Research Projects

Rice (Oryza sativa L.), the staple food for more than half of the worldwide population, is threatened by diverse abiotic and biotic stress factors. Among the most devastating biotic threats is rice blast disease caused by the fungus Magnaporthe oryzae, which results in 30% yield loss under favorable conditions (Zhang et al., 2016; Yan et al., 2023). M. oryzae initiates rice blast infection by forming a specific structure known as appressorium, which builds high turgor pressure to penetrate the leaf surface, followed by invasive hyphal growth and effector secretion to suppress plant immunity (Wengler and Talbot, 2025). Concurrently, abiotic stresses for example drought and heat are becoming increasingly frequent and intense, contributing to substantial declines in crop quality and yield (Zhao et al., 2017). Notably, drought stress has been reported to enhance plant susceptibility to pathogens, including M. oryzae (Ramegowda and Senthil-Kumar, 2015). Although significant progress has been made to understand plant physiological and molecular responses to individual stress, the simultaneous occurrence of abiotic and biotic stresses triggers unique and complex responses that cannot be fully explained by studying each stress independently (Atkinson & Urwin, 2013; Pandey et al., 2017). This study addresses a key gap by investigating how drought stress modulates the rice- M. oryzae interaction at the metabolic level. While recent insights have elucidated the importance of regulated cell death processes like autophagy and ferroptosis in fungal pathogenicity, the influence of abiotic stress on these mechanisms remains poorly understood. In this research, analyzing both resistant and susceptible rice cultivars under combined drought and pathogen stress will aid in identifying metabolites associated with specific defense mechanisms, where selecting an appropriate metabolite profiling method is crucial, as it directly influences the interpretation of host–pathogen interaction outcomes. Using an untargeted metabolomics approach, we shall uncover novel biochemical signatures that may regulate or interact with the fungal infection machinery under drought conditions, offering new strategies for disease management and climate-resilient crop breeding. These data will be integrated with disease severity indices and physiological parameters to uncover biomarkers associated with enhanced tolerance. Multivariate statistical analyses and metabolic pathway mapping will be employed to link these biomarkers to key stress-responsive pathways. The present proposal aims to identify and validate metabolite biomarkers that are differentially regulated during combined abiotic stress and biotic stress (drought and M. oryzae infection). These biomarkers will provide insights into the metabolic adjustments rice plants make under dual stress, enabling the development of predictive tools for disease susceptibility and potential targets for engineering stress-resilient rice.