Rice is the staple food for more than half of the world's population. However, rice production is increasingly threatened by rice grain rot, a devastating disease mainly caused by Burkholderia glumae. In Vietnam's Mekong Delta—one of the world's most important rice-producing regions—this disease can cause yield losses of up to 75%, and its impact is expected to increase further under climate change. Current management options are limited, while reliance on chemical pesticides is becoming increasingly unsustainable.
This ambitious project aims to develop innovative microbiome-assisted biocontrol strategies against one of the most destructive bacterial diseases affecting rice production in Southeast Asia. The project combines fundamental and applied research through three closely integrated research lines: (i) Characterization of Burkholderia glumae isolates collected throughout the Mekong Delta; (ii) Identification of beneficial microorganisms and microbiome signatures associated with healthy rice fields using high-throughput sequencing and advanced bioinformatics; (iii) Discovery, characterization and evaluation of indigenous bacterial biocontrol organisms capable of suppressing rice grain rot.
The successful candidate will apply a broad spectrum of state-of-the-art techniques, including: microbial isolation and culturing, plant infection assays, microbiome sequencing and analysis, whole genome sequencing, comparative genomics and genome mining, qPCR method development, and applied bioinformatics.
The project offers a unique opportunity to work at the interface of microbiology, microbial ecology, plant pathology, genomics, bioinformatics and sustainable agriculture, while contributing directly to global food security and environmentally friendly crop protection.
The PhD will be conducted at KU Leuven, in close collaboration with Can Tho University (Vietnam). The research will result in a PhD degree at KU Leuven and is expected to generate multiple high-impact scientific publications, presentations at international conferences, and close interaction with academic and industrial stakeholders.
