Seed source innovation "storing grain in technology"
2024-06-12
At the end of May, at the experimental base of the Crop Science Research Institute of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences in Xinxiang, Henan Province, wheat was about to mature, and the waves of wheat were rolling, turning golden. Among the wheat varieties planted in this area, 90 "Xiaomai Ice Grass" distant hybrid innovative germplasms created by Li Lihui, a researcher at the Crop Science Research Institute of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, were concentrated on 0.5 acres of each species, creating a spectacular scene. This germplasm is considered an important genetic resource for opening up the path of high-yield wheat breeding in China, providing excellent germplasm resources for wheat breeding innovation, and injecting innovative forces into achieving independent and controllable seed industry technology. On May 24th, a field exhibition and effective utilization seminar on "Wheat Ice Grass" distant hybrid new strains (species), jointly organized by the Crop Science Research Institute of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences and the Central Plains Research Center of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, was held in Xinxiang. Representatives from more than 40 research institutions, seed industry enterprises, and other breeding units observed 90 "Wheat Ice Grass" distant hybrid high yield, stable yield, and strong gluten new strains (species), including the 2023 national approved wheat variety "Pubing 03" and 9 new strains currently participating in national regional trials. Why is the "wheat ice grass" alliance so highly regarded by the industry? "The germplasm of the 'wheat wheatgrass' distant hybridization series displayed this year has shown remarkable diversity after upgrading. These new materials not only maintain the characteristics of more flowers and more fruits, but also have compact plant types and upright leaves. It is worth mentioning that they have shown excellent resistance to current major diseases such as stem rot and scab, and also have the characteristics of high quality and strong tendons." Liu Xu, an academician of the CAE Member and a researcher of the Institute of Operations of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, commented. Conquering the World Problem of Distant Hybridization: Ice grass plants are one of the closely related wild species of wheat, with extremely strong vitality and excellent drought resistance, cold resistance, and disease resistance. Its ears are somewhat similar to wheat, but the ears are large and have prominent characteristics of having many small ears and flowers. In addition, it also has strong cold and drought resistance, and shows high immunity to various wheat diseases. It is considered one of the best exogenous excellent gene donors for wheat improvement. It is not easy to achieve distant hybridization between wheat and ice grass. "Ice grass and wheat look similar in appearance, but in fact, their genetic relationship is far apart, making hybridization very difficult," said Li Lihui. Starting from the 1930s, scholars from some countries hoped to solve this problem, but it was not successful until the 1980s. The international wheat research community generally believes that the distant hybridization between wheat and ice grass is a dead end. In 1988, before entering the master's program, when Li Lihui proposed this topic to his supervisor and renowned crop germplasm resource expert Dong Yuchen, Dong kindly advised him to give up. "I want to give it a try, and if it doesn't work, I'll change the question." Li Lihui's persistence convinced the teacher, and then he led two assistants to start researching in the experimental field. 36 years later, in the experimental fields of Xinxiang, Henan, dozens of wheat and ice grass hybrid materials are about to mature. There are already 15 new varieties developed using these materials, and 39 new reserve varieties. What are the challenges of distant hybridization between wheat and ice grass? "There are three major obstacles to distant hybridization: incompatibility, hybrid infertility, and 'crazy separation' of offspring, which have always been unsolvable." Zhang Jinpeng, a researcher at the Crop Science Research Institute of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, said that for example, wheat usually matures in late May, while ice grass grows in high latitude areas and has just bloomed. To hybridize the two, the first step is to adjust the flowering period to the same period. Secondly, it is necessary to address the issue of reproductive isolation during wheat ice grass pollination and fertilization. Even if pollination is successful, the embryo cannot develop normally and a set of embryo rescue techniques need to be developed to obtain hybrid plants. The conventional breeding technology route is not feasible, so researchers have taken a different approach. Through innovative cultivation of germplasm resources, they have finally broken through the "reproductive isolation" between wheat and ice grass. Under the leadership of Li Lihui, the wheat germplasm resource innovation and utilization team of the Crop Science Research Institute of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences has created a new technology system for wheat distant hybridization through unremitting efforts. Through a series of innovations such as early pollination, embryo rescue, young spike cell culture, high-frequency induction of heterologous translocation, and development of specific molecular markers, the problem of distant hybridization between wheat and ice grass has been overcome, achieving an important breakthrough in wheat breeding by utilizing excellent exogenous genes of the ice grass genus from "0" to "1". The team has also completed genome sequencing of wild donor species of ice grass and resequencing of derived offspring, continuously promoting the effective utilization of innovative germplasm and the breeding of new varieties. Using the "Wheat Ice Grass" multi grain gradually infiltrating parent material, we have bred a significantly increased yield Pubing Zi 300, a highly efficient nitrogen nutrient utilization Pubing Zi 301, and a high-quality and strong gluten new line Pubing Zi 4696 with stable performance in multiple ecological areas. These lines are currently participating in national wheat variety approval trials. "In the past, improving wheat varieties and increasing yield mainly relied on hybridization between existing promoted varieties. However, long-term hybridization between varieties and the extensive application of a few backbone parents have led to a narrowing of the range of genetic variation, a trend towards a single variety antigen, and wheat breeding entering a bottleneck period." Li Lihui said, "Therefore, introducing excellent genes of ice grass into wheat through distant hybridization is a significant work. Among the wild relatives of wheat, species of ice grass have many excellent target traits of wheat breeding. Through distant hybridization, introducing key excellent genes that are currently lacking in cultivated wheat can not only improve yield, but also enhance resistance to stress and diseases." After combining wheat and ice grass, the most important work is to achieve. "The direct benefit is high yield. Li Lihui introduced that in traditional breeding, the number of spikes per mu, the number of grains per spike, and the weight of 1000 grains are the three factors that affect yield, but these three factors are negatively correlated with each other. That is, the increase of one factor often leads to a decrease in the other two factors, making it difficult to improve them simultaneously. The innovative germplasm of "Wheat Ice Grass" has solved this problem, with high yield characteristics of multiple flowers and fruits, which can increase yield by more than 10% compared to the main wheat varieties. It has solved the breakthrough problem of high yield wheat germplasm shortage in China, especially the discovery of excellent gene clusters of "multiple grains high thousand grain weight effective tillering", which significantly increase the number of grains and thousand grain weight per spike. The ability to resist stress and diseases has also been greatly enhanced. Research has found that the innovative germplasm of "wheat ice grass" has broad-spectrum resistance to diseases such as powdery mildew, stripe rust, and leaf rust, providing strong support for cultivating new varieties with persistent resistance and multiple disease resistance. As of now, "Wheat Ice Grass" derived lines have been distributed to national breeding units, cultivating 21 new varieties carrying exogenous target genes of ice grass, and 39 new strains participating in national and provincial regional trials, covering the main wheat production areas in China. Among them, Pubing 151, a new wheat variety approved by Gansu and Shaanxi provinces, has become the main variety for local stripe rust and other diseases in arid wheat areas, achieving a new breakthrough in multi resistance breeding. "In the future, an innovative germplasm utilization consortium of 'wheat ice grass' will be established to greatly improve utilization efficiency, and to strengthen the functional analysis of important genes such as high-yield, high-quality, and multi resistance from the ice grass P genome in the innovative germplasm." Li Lihui said. The "Wheat Ice Grass" distant hybridization series germplasm materials showcased this year also have the characteristics of high-quality and strong gluten. Whether noodles are gluten or not is related to the quality of wheat. Medium gluten wheat is mainly used for making traditional pasta such as noodles and Mantou, while weak gluten wheat is mostly used for industrial production such as wine making, while strong gluten wheat is mostly used for making bread, dumplings, Lamian Noodles and other foods. In the past, there was insufficient production and poor variety of weak and strong gluten wheat in China. With the development of agricultural technology, China's own weak and strong gluten varieties have generally caught up with the international advanced level. From germplasm innovation to effective utilization, although the time is usually relatively long, the impact is far-reaching. We look forward to the research on distant hybridization of 'wheat ice grass' to promote new breakthroughs in wheat breeding Li Lihui said, "There is a lot of space for the use of 'wheat wheatgrass' innovative germplasm, and some potential needs to be further explored. The team screened 12 new germplasm of strong gluten type Pubing from the materials harvested in Xinxiang base. These new lines have high protein content, are suitable for making high-grade bread, and have high market value." "This shows that the use of' wheat wheatgrass' has reached a new level." Sun Qixin, an academician of the CAE Member and president of China Agricultural University, said that from germplasm materials to new varieties, from more flowers and more fruits to more resistance, these lines (varieties) have great potential. This advantage should be transformed into a production advantage to benefit wheat breeding. Kang Zhensheng, an academician of the CAE Member and professor of the Northwest University of Agriculture and Forestry Science and Technology, has recently been focusing on how to improve the comprehensive disease resistance of wheat varieties. At this seminar, the "wheat ice grass" distant hybrid new lines and varieties showcased, commonly known as "Pubing", have a genetic difference of more than 60% compared to the wheat varieties currently being promoted and planted in production. These strains (varieties) have 20-40 sister lines and will try to meet the different requirements of the promotion area as much as possible. Representatives from enterprises highly praised the high-yield potential, disease resistance, lodging resistance, resistance to pre harvest sprouting stress, and strong gluten quality characteristics of the new wheat ice grass line, and expressed strong willingness for the next step of cooperative development and promotion. "I have been following the Pubing series for 3 years and have been trying it out for 2 years. Especially last year when there was a 'rotten rain', we saw that the Pubing 300 variety is very resistant to sprouting, with a thousand grain weight of 42 to 43 grams." Li Songke, Chairman of Henan Kelin Seed Industry Co., Ltd., said, "I have noticed that the spike layer of Pubing series wheat is relatively thick, with three layers of spikes, especially the lowest spikelet. I have counted around 15 grains, and its maturity period is very close to the maturity period of the upper spikelet. This means that the spikelet can also produce grain, which can increase yield and has great production potential. We planted it in the base for the second year this year, and tested one acre of land every year, with a high number of grains per spike. Therefore, from a market perspective, we believe that this variety is worth expanding. To play the leading role of the national breeding team in agricultural modernization, seeds are the foundation.". This year is a crucial year for the revitalization of the seed industry, shifting from "laying the foundation in three years" to "achieving results in five years". The wheat production functional zone in the Huanghuai wheat region is the core area of national grain production. Since the seed industry revitalization action, accelerating the cultivation of breakthrough new seed sources with original innovation has become the top priority of seed industry technological innovation. China's wheat breeding began as early as the first half of the 20th century, thanks to the unremitting exploration of generations of breeders, gradually reaching the forefront of the world. Seeds are the "chips" of agriculture, and the advancement of seed industry technology is the foundation of agricultural development and an important prerequisite for ensuring food security. At present, China's wheat yield level ranks among the top in the world, with obvious advantages in self-sufficiency of independent variety sources. However, it also faces problems such as entering a bottleneck period of yield improvement and insufficient supply of green, multi resistant and high-quality varieties. Looking back at the development process of seed industry technology innovation, every large-scale improvement in yield and quality is attributed to the emergence of breakthrough new germplasm and the emergence of a large number of major breakthrough new varieties Vice President of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences
Edit：He Chuanning Responsible editor：Su Suiyue
Source：Xinhua
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