North Carolina State University Athletics
NC State Campus News: Nature's Football Game
9/2/2005 12:00:00 AM | Pack Athletics
Sept. 2, 2005
Imagine a football game where the defense suddenly is allowed to have 15 players on the field instead of 11, or where the offense needs only five yards to gain a first down instead of 10, and you get a slight glimpse of one of nature's constant struggles.
Changing the rules in the middle of a game is something that Dr. Ralph Dean, professor of plant pathology at NC State, and colleagues from across the globe examine every day.
This struggle pits the rice plant - arguably the most important food staple in the world - against its biggest enemy, a fungus called rice blast.
Research shows that about 2 billion people depend on rice for more than 50 percent of their caloric intake. But rice blast is responsible each year for killing enough rice to feed 60 million people worldwide.
Now, NC State research led by Dean is delving into the inner workings of both rice and rice blast to learn exactly how the disease harms rice, and to figure out ways of making rice less susceptible to the disease. That's difficult when the plant and the enemy constantly change the rules of the struggle, adapting to the opposition's weaknesses, changing the ways they protect themselves, and constantly evolving to get the upper hand.
In the end, Dean and his colleagues hope to make the rice plant less vulnerable to attack from rice blast.
And, in nature's football game, to keep the rules constant throughout the game.
