Shanghai takes the lead in establishing a national rice gene breeding platform

According to the latest news released by the Shanghai Academy of Agricultural Sciences, the nationwide rice genetic resources and molecular technology breeding platform, led by the Shanghai Agricultural Biological Gene Center and other units, has been shared by the whole society. A large number of genes related to rice yield, rice quality, and stress resistance have been located, and a number of new rice varieties and combinations have been bred.

According to relevant people of Shanghai Academy of Agricultural Sciences, the main goal of rice variety improvement is to further improve yield potential, improve quality and enhance stress resistance. The history of rice research shows that the key to breakthrough achievements lies in the innovation and utilization of genetic resources. China is rich in rice resources and contains a large number of favorable genes, but it is difficult to find and use these genes by conventional technology. At present, the genetic resources applied to breeding practice are less than 5% of the existing resources.

Since the end of the last century, Shanghai Agricultural Biogene Center and other units have organized relevant domestic research forces to implement the research project of "Rice Gene Resources Innovation and Molecular Technology breeding". At present, a large-scale rice functional gene resource platform has been basically constructed and put into application. A complete permanent mapping population and introduction line population were constructed, and more than 38000 introduced lines representing the genetic background of main varieties in different ecological regions of China were systematically catalogued, propagated and stored. The relevant genetic resources information network system has been shared by the whole society, and more than 15000 copies of resources have been distributed to relevant agricultural research institutions in 20 provinces across the country.

It is understood that during the progress of the project, the relevant personnel also built a rice molecular marker technology platform, developed a large number of molecular markers, and established an efficient detection technology system of molecular markers; 131 genes related to agronomy, quality, resistance and yield were located; a number of indica-japonica specific markers were discovered for the first time, and rice indica-japonica classification techniques were established.

The establishment and application of rice genetic resources and molecular technology breeding platform have promoted the innovation of rice germplasm and the breeding and popularization of new varieties in China. According to statistics, during the implementation of the whole research project, 35 new germplasm with important application prospects were cultivated through marker-assisted introduction and polymerization breeding, and 6 new rice varieties and combinations were bred, which passed the national variety approval. The cumulative extension area reached more than 18 million mu, increased rice production by 2.3 billion kg, and achieved social and economic benefits of more than 2 billion yuan.