◎ Science and Technology Daily reporter Liu Zhiwei Wu Chunxin
Correspondent Zhu Yongjin Qiu Jianshan
"These new cotton varieties are still being cultivated, with stronger resistance and obvious benefits for increasing cotton production and improving quality." On June 29th, Jin Shuangxia, a professor at the School of Plant Science and Technology of Huazhong Agricultural University, carefully inspected the growth of cotton seedlings in the greenhouse.
Breeding Dont Ask For Help, the industrial development is full of confidence.
Since last year, the Science and Technology Department of Hubei Province has focused on high-level science and technology to stand on its own feet and strive to create a "root technology" innovation highland, providing "root support" for striving for a nationally influential science and technology innovation center in Wuhan and a comprehensive national science center in Hubei East Lake. At the beginning of this year, Hongshan Laboratory was established in Hubei Province to gather innovative elements of biological seed industry in the whole province, explore the "root technology" of breeding, and support the construction of "planting capital" in China.
Precision Breeding Makes Cotton Improve Quality and Increase Efficiency
China is the second largest cotton producer in the world, and the supply of cotton planting land is limited. How to stabilize and increase the total output continuously? "Work hard on yield and mechanization, in which cotton breeding is very important." Jin Shuangxia said that at present, in China’s key cotton producing areas, the degree of mechanization has reached more than 80%.
Jin Shuangxia introduced that in the field of cotton breeding, genetic transformation technology and gene editing system are the "root technologies" to achieve precision breeding. "We are in an international leading position in these two technologies." Jin Shuangxia said that he and his team have developed four sets of cotton gene editing systems, which have been used in cotton breeding research by more than 120 scientific research institutions at home and abroad.
This year, Jin Shuangxia’s team won the "Cotton Biotechnology Award", which is the highest award in the international cotton technology field.
Precision breeding is to cultivate new varieties that can solve the pain points of cotton planting and meet the market demand. Previously, the domestic insect-resistant cotton cultivated by the Jin Shuangxia team has withstood the test. "The quality has improved and the output has increased significantly." Jin Shuangxia said that insect-resistant cotton can reduce the use of pesticides by 80% in the planting process, which is both high-yield and "green".
In the future, relying on the original core technology, Jin Shuangxia’s team will also develop more high-yield cotton varieties with better resistance, so as to achieve pest resistance and herbicide resistance. At the same time, constantly enrich the gene editing system and seize the commanding heights of crop gene editing.
Jingchu breeding pigs are sold nationwide.
Hubei is a big pig breeding province, and there are 8 national pig breeding farms, which are not only self-sufficient, but also sell 70% of them outside the province every year. In terms of quantity, there is no "stuck neck" problem in Hubei breeding pigs, but in terms of production performance, there is still a certain gap between Hubei breeding pigs and foreign advanced levels, and their international competitiveness is not strong enough.
At present, all countries in the world are breeding their Duroc, Changbai and Dabai. Whoever improves faster will eventually win in this competition.
"Genome selection is the most advanced breeding technology at present, and the estimation algorithm of genome breeding value is the ‘ Root technology ’ The team’s original algorithm has obvious advantages compared with similar international algorithms in terms of estimation accuracy and calculation speed. " Li Xinyun, a professor at Huazhong Agricultural University, said, "In this field, we are at the forefront of the world. Relying on the original algorithm, the team developed the genome selection breeding software HiBLUP, which has been applied in many research institutions and enterprises at home and abroad. "
In addition, the team also established the pig integromics gene mining technology system, took the lead in establishing the pig integromics database in the world, and realized the fine screening of candidate genes for target traits. The technical system won the second prize of national technological invention. "The breeding technology of breeding pigs developed by the team has supported the improvement of breeding pigs in many core farms in the province. Compared with 10 years ago, the production performance of Hubei breeding pigs has been significantly improved. Taking large white pigs as an example, the number of weaned piglets (PSY) provided by each sow has increased by nearly three per year, and the age of reaching the market weight has been shortened by about one week. " Professor Li Xinyun said.
Golden rape blooms everywhere.
The earliest rapeseed breeding in China originated from Huazhong Agricultural University.
"Academician Fu Tingdong discovered the first practical rape male sterility type Polima cytoplasmic male sterility in the world, which is the hybrid breeding of rape ‘ Root technology ’ 。” Fan Chuchuan, a professor at the School of Plant Science and Technology of Huazhong Agricultural University, said that more than half of the hybrid rapeseed varieties promoted internationally originated from this system.
This new discovery directly promoted the related research in the field of hybrid rape. Up to now, more than 230 hybrid rapeseed varieties have been bred by using this sterile system, and the cumulative extension area has exceeded 1 billion mu.
In recent years, rape clubroot has spread rapidly in the main rape producing areas in China and is regarded as rape cancer. In the event of clubroot disease in rape planting, it will lead to a significant reduction in production, and in severe cases, it will be completely harvested.
Fan Chuchuan said that the first rape variety resistant to clubroot was cultivated in Huazhong Agricultural University. At the same time, the research team of the school has also bred the first rape variety with high oleic acid in China, which has great social and economic value.
Variety breeding has been on the road. Fan Chuchuan introduced that rape can be used not only as oil, but also as vegetable (such as selenium-enriched rape moss), honey, feed and anti-virus, which all put forward new requirements for breeding.
At present, Fan Chuchuan’s team is engaged in more research to realize the development strategy of rapeseed industry, which combines oil-based and multi-functional utilization, so that golden rapeseed can bloom everywhere, and a series of social problems can be solved only by planting rapeseed varieties in autumn fallow fields and winter fallow fields.