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Healthy Crops @healthycrops.bsky.social · 6h

We at #HealthyCrops are building on this legacy, engineering disease resistance into elite varieties like Swarna-Sub1.

As pests and climate threats evolve, resilience must too.
What traits do you see as key for future rice? 🌾

Healthy Crops @healthycrops.bsky.social · 6h

@irriofficial.bsky.social breeders introgressed SUB1A into elite varieties like Swarna, IR64, and Samba Mahsuri, creating flood-tolerant rice that survives up to 2 weeks submerged.

Since 2009, these lines have supported millions of farmers across South & Southeast Asia. Read more: buff.ly/IjQiQMC

Submergence Tolerant Rice: SUB1’s Journey from Landrace to Modern Cultivar - Rice

Rice landraces tolerant of up to 2 weeks of complete submergence were collected from farmers’ fields in the 1950s. Success in fine mapping of SUBMERGENCE 1 (SUB1), a robust quantitative trait locus…

doi.org

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Healthy Crops @healthycrops.bsky.social · 6h

🌾 #LabtoLeaf: How does rice survive floods? It waits for drier times.

The SUB1A gene, discovered in the Indian landrace FR13A, helps rice conserve energy underwater through a survival strategy called quiescence: it pauses growth until floodwaters recede.

#PlantScience #Rice

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Healthy Crops @healthycrops.bsky.social · 3d

(3/3) Currently, he is working on tracking different Xanthomonas strains and their evolutionary patterns across West and East Africa. Alvaro's research helps to track blight epidemics as well as inform our targeted resistance strategies to stay one step ahead.

#IamHealthyCrops #PlantScience

Healthy Crops @healthycrops.bsky.social · 3d

(2/3) “I am studying how bacteria evolve to infect plants, how they break down resistance, and the impact of domestication in the plant-pathogen-interaction. At first I was fascinated by the immune system of plants, but once I started working on how bacteria evolve to counteract it, I was in awe.”

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Healthy Crops @healthycrops.bsky.social · 3d

(1/3) 🌿 Meet Dr. Alvaro Pérez-Quintero, one of our researchers at IRD in France.

Alvaro’s work focuses on how plant pathogens evolve, specifically how bacteria like Xanthomonas adapt to overcome plant resistance, and how these insights can help us build durable resistance strategies.

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Healthy Crops @healthycrops.bsky.social · 7d

Bacterial blight threatens global rice yields. By editing SWEET gene promoters, we block the pathogen’s entry route and give rice broad resistance. Whole-genome sequencing confirmed the absence of foreign DNA, meeting criteria for regulatory exemption.

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Healthy Crops @healthycrops.bsky.social · 7d

New publication from Healthy Crops!
Our latest study in Plant Biotechnology Journal reports that our #genome-edited #rice varieties which are resistant to bacterial blight, are free of external DNA and show no yield penalties in multi-location field trials!
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Removal of Transgenes and Evaluation of Yield Penalties in Genome Edited Bacterial Blight Resistant Rice Varieties

Bacterial blight (BB) of rice, caused by Xanthomonas oryzae pv. oryzae (Xoo), is one of the major drivers of yield losses in Africa and Asia. Xoo secretes TAL-effectors (TALe) that induce host SWEET ....

onlinelibrary.wiley.com

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Healthy Crops @healthycrops.bsky.social · Jul 17

(3/3) Michael brings his expertise in precision phenotyping and remote sensing to our work on disease resistance in rice. At the moment, he is evaluating the agronomic performance of our latest rice lines in the field under real environmental conditions.

#IamHealthyCrops #RiceResearch #PlantScience

Healthy Crops @healthycrops.bsky.social · Jul 17

(2/3) His work helps improve drought and nutrient efficiency screening in crops like cassava and rice. Why does this matter?
Boosting efficiency in how we observe plants means faster, more accurate crop improvement. It’s essential for meeting global food demands under pressure from climate change.

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Healthy Crops @healthycrops.bsky.social · Jul 17

(1/3) 🌾 Meet Dr. Michael Gomez Selvaraj, senior scientist at CIAT (@bioversityciat.bsky.social ) in Colombia, and one of our PIs at Healthy Crops.

Michael leads CIAT’s plant phenomics platform in Colombia, where he develops cutting-edge tools for monitoring plant traits.

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Healthy Crops @healthycrops.bsky.social · Jul 15

The HHU Ideas Competition, organized by CEDUS promotes entrepreneurship at HHU by encouraging creative thinking and spotlighting start-up ideas from students, researchers, and staff across all disciplines.

Picture Copyright: Amir Ouadahi, paint the town studios

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Healthy Crops @healthycrops.bsky.social · Jul 15

🥳 Healthy Crops was awarded 3rd place in the 2025 @hhu.de Ideas Competition! 🏆

Out of 100+ submissions, our concept to create disease-resistant crops using genome editing was recognized for its innovation and impact!

Thanks to everyone supporting our efforts!
#GenomeEditing #PlantScience

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Reposted by Healthy Crops

Morgan Carter @morgancarterphd.bsky.social · Jul 15

Wolf Frommer presents work from @healthycrops.bsky.social, a global collaboration to work on bacterial blight of rice.

They are transferring transgene-free, genome edited rice to different countries, with legal frameworks in place, to test resistance to Xanthomonas oryzae pv. oryzae.
#2025ISMPMI

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Reposted by Healthy Crops

CEPLAS - Cluster of Excellence on Plant Sciences @ceplas.bsky.social · Jul 11

Great to see two teams from the Plant Science and #QBIO communities making it to the podium at yesterday’s HHU Ideas Competition by #CEDUS! 🌱🧠
Exciting projects and well deserved — very curious to watch these ideas grow! 🚀👏 @healthycrops.bsky.social @plantgen-hhu.bsky.social

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Healthy Crops @healthycrops.bsky.social · Jul 9

📚 #PaperTrails - How can we better manage crop diseases?
In a recent publication, we argue for better pathogen monitoring, clearer resistance reporting & smarter deployment of resistant varieties.
Big thanks to @elizaloopi.bsky.social & everyone involved!
#plantpathology #bacterialblight #rice

Closing the Information Gap Between the Field and Scientific Literature for Improved Disease Management, with a Focus on Rice and Bacterial Blight | Molecular Plant-Microbe Interactions®

A path to sustainably reduce world hunger, food insecurity, and malnutrition is to close the crop yield gap and, particularly, lower losses due to pathogens. Breeding resistant crops is key to achievi...

apsjournals.apsnet.org

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Healthy Crops @healthycrops.bsky.social · Jul 4

(3/3)
Why is she working on this? "Cereals make up the bulk of the energy sources of food, a basic need for everyone. Food insecurity is a real threat in Sub-saharan Africa including Kenya. Through my research, I hope to contribute to a food secure nation and region."

#IamHealthyCrops

Healthy Crops @healthycrops.bsky.social · Jul 4

(2/3)
She is also working on advancing nitrogen fixation in finger millet. Emily is currently leading field trials under real world conditions for some of our blight-resistant rice lines, testing how them under the local pathogenic pressure they were created for.

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Healthy Crops @healthycrops.bsky.social · Jul 4

(1/3)
Meet Dr Emily Gichuhi, researcher at KALRO and one of our PIs at Healthy Crops. Her current research focuses on enhancing rice yields under stress conditions, aiming to make rice cultivation more resilient to climate change and improving disease resistance & abiotic stress tolerance in rice.

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Healthy Crops @healthycrops.bsky.social · Jul 2

#LabtoLeaf: What causes blight in rice?
The bacterium Xanthomonas oryzae pv. oryzae (Xoo) highjacks the plant's sugar transporters to promote its own growth instead. This leads to leaf lesions up to total yield loss, affecting farmers world wide.
Read more about it here: buff.ly/uvyDt0u
#RiceBlight

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Healthy Crops @healthycrops.bsky.social · Jun 26

🌾 #LabtoLeaf: Not all rice is the same!
Oryza sativa, the global staple, from Basmati to Swarna and IR64.
Oryza glaberrima, Africa’s resilient rice, rooted in tradition and adapted to tough soils and drought.
At #HealthyCrops, we're working with lines like Komboka & IR64.
What’s your go-to #rice? 🍚

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Healthy Crops @healthycrops.bsky.social · Jun 16

To kick things off, we’re launching:
👋 #IamHealthyCrops – meet the team
🌱 #LabtoLeaf – insights into plant biology
🧫 #PetriandPlots – the how of our science
📚 #PaperTrails – deep but digestible takes on key papers

Follow along and let us know what interests you!
#HealthyCrops #PlantScience

Healthy Crops @healthycrops.bsky.social · Jun 16

We’re stepping up our outreach! 🌾
Expect more from us in the next weeks: more about who we are, what we do, and what’s happening in crop science. Whether you're into genes, greenhouses, or ground-breaking research, or just like fun facts, there's something here for you.
👇

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Healthy Crops @healthycrops.bsky.social · Apr 28

For a more detailed profile on Wolf's work you can visit the Healthy Crops website:(www.healthycrops.org/healthycrops...)

Wolf B. Frommer elected to the U.S. National Academy of Sciences

We are delighted to announce that Wolf B. Frommer, Scientific Leader of the Healthy Crops project, has been elected as a member of the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) in the United States. Election...

www.healthycrops.org

Healthy Crops @healthycrops.bsky.social · Apr 28

We are proud to announce that Wolf B. Frommer (@research-science.bsky.social ), Scientific Leader of Healthy Crops, has been elected to the U.S. National Academy of Sciences (@nasonline.org)! A tremendous honor recognizing his groundbreaking contributions to plant science!
#Science #HealthyCrops

Wolf B. Frommer is honored during the U.S. National Academy of Sciences ceremony. A slide in the background shows his name, affiliation with Heinrich Heine University of Düsseldorf, and a photo of him examining plants in a greenhouse. Three people are present on stage, surrounded by plants and banners with scientific motifs.

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