Bacterial Leaf Blight of Rice

A bacterial disease (Xanthomonas oryzae pv. oryzae) that causes water soaked lesions along rice leaf margins, turning yellow to white as they spread and can reduce yields by up to 50 percent in susceptible varieties under favorable warm, humid conditions. It is one of the most serious rice diseases across Asia and has been a major target of resistance gene breeding since it was first identified in Japan in the late nineteenth century.