Dr. Rory Pruitt 
Post-Doc Fellow, Ronald Lab, 
UC Davis 

Rice is an important source of food for half of the world’s population. In this presentation, Dr. Rory Pruitt explains that two of the major factors that have dramatically improved rice production in the past 50 years are the introduction of new, high-yielding varieties of rice and the adoption of nitrogen-rich fertilizers. Ironically, these advances have also come with unexpected consequences. One of those consequences is the widespread rise of Bacterial Blight, as some of the new rice varieties were susceptible to it, while the nitrogen fertilizers promoted its growth. The Ronald Lab, where Dr. Pruitt works, has devoted research time to find ways to control rice infections, starting in the 1990s with discovering what genes are responsible for resistance to the bacteria. Dr. Pruitt then presents more recent findings. 

Recorded: October 23, 2015