Decoding how pathogens attack rice, and how rice fights back.

CSIR-CCMB conducts rice seed distribution programme at Annexe-III, Bhongir

The Crop Improvement Lab organised a Seed Distribution Programme at its Annexe-III campus in Bommaipalli, Bhongir, Telangana. Seeds of climate-resilient, high-yielding and diabetic-friendly rice varieties, developed in collaboration with ICAR-IIRR, were distributed to more than 150 farmers. The programme promoted scientific innovation in agriculture, farmer–scientist interaction and the adoption of improved rice varieties for sustainable farming.

Through this initiative, the Crop Improvement Lab reaffirms its commitment to developing and promoting improved crop varieties that enhance agricultural productivity, support climate resilience and contribute to farmer welfare.

RICE BOWL does it again at CCMB Open Day 2026

We are happy to share that RICE BOWL won Best Exhibit in the Health Category at CCMB Open Day 2026, held on 26 September. This year's Open Day welcomed more than 7,000 visitors, giving us the opportunity to share the story of rice research with students, teachers and the general public.

What makes this recognition especially special is that RICE BOWL has continued its winning streak at CCMB Open Day year after year. It is a reflection of our continued effort to take science beyond the laboratory and present research in a way that is simple, engaging and meaningful to everyone.

Another year, another award, and another reminder that science is best when it reaches people.

Anjana Sharma receives Global Methane Hub travel grant for ISRFG26 in London

Congratulations to Anjana Sharma, Senior Research Fellow in the lab, on receiving the Global Methane Hub travel grant for the International Symposium on Rice Functional Genomics 2026 (ISRFG26).

The symposium was held from 8–11 September 2026 at The Royal Society, London, where Anjana delivered an oral presentation titled “Integrated QTL-Seq and Multi-Omics Analyses Reveal Molecular Mechanisms of Sheath Blight Resistance in an EMS-Induced Rice Mutant.”

RICE Re-Imagined: a five-day hands-on genome editing masterclass

The lab ran Rice Re-Imagined: Hands on Genome Editing Masterclass (RICE-1), a five-day hands-on training workshop at CSIR-Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology, for faculty, researchers from universities, institutes and industry, and others working in life sciences and allied areas. It covered the basic techniques of genome editing and tissue culture as used in real experiments, combining lectures with bench work, instrument set-up and data analysis.

Our Samba Mahsuri genome assembly is now on bioRxiv

SMv1.0: a ~395 Mb chromosome-scale assembly at 97.7% BUSCO completeness, built from PacBio HiFi reads with Illumina and Bionano optical mapping. An inversion–match–inversion block on chromosome 6 separates Samba Mahsuri from the japonica reference Nipponbare but not from indica R498, and across 533 cultivated and 4 wild accessions, variation inside that block resolves population structure far more sharply than the genome-wide picture does.

Anjana Sharma wins the best oral presentation award

Congratulations to Anjana Sharma, Senior Research Fellow in the lab, for the best oral presentation award at the International Conference on Global Sustainability through Life Science: Green Energy, Climate Resilience & SDG Integration, held at St Pious Degree College in collaboration with Dallas Baptist University, Texas, USA.

Dr. Jamaloddin wins the best poster presentation award at ICCRA 2026

Congratulations to Dr. Jamaloddin, Project Research Scientist in the lab, for the best poster presentation award at the International Conference on Climate-Resilient Agriculture for Sustainable Development: Innovations and Solutions (ICCRA 2026), held at Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi. The poster was titled TILLING-based identification of OsTFIIAγ1 and Os11N3 mutants and their classification for BLB resistance in rice.

Strong-culm mapping paper published in Planta, with ICAR-IIRR

A collaborative study between our lab at CSIR-CCMB and ICAR-IIRR. QTL mapping and MutMap run side by side converged on the same genomic regions for culm strength (the trait underneath lodging resistance) in the Samba Mahsuri background.