Understanding rice blast: investigating biotechnological methods to speed up the development of robust rice cultivars

The fungus Magnaporthe oryzae is responsible for causing rice blast, which is a significant threat to rice production worldwide. Cultivating resistant cultivars is a crucial and long-lasting method of management. Genetic mapping, including linkage and associative methods and marker-assisted selection, have significantly accelerated the progress of plant breeding efforts against M. oryzae. Simultaneously, advanced genomic editing methods, such as Meganucleases (MNs), Zinc-finger nucleases (ZFNs), Transcription Activator-Effector Nucleases (TALENs), and Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindrome Repeats/CRISPR-associated protein 9 (CRISPR/Cas9), allow for accurate and specific alterations to the genetic code. Furthermore, the alteration of particular genes through transgenics provides an alternative approach. This review article aims to thoroughly analyze the rice blast disease, its cause, and elucidate the potential biotechnological solutions for enhanced rice cultivars that are resistant to blast disease, and enhancing food production in a growing world.