Success! my country has made a new breakthrough! It will benefit the world!

In the early morning of July 22, Beijing time, the internationally renowned academic journal Science published online in the form of a long research article an important gene discovered in rice by the team of Researcher Zhou Wenbin from the Institute of Crop Sciences, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences: OsDREB1C.

This is another high-yield crop gene discovered by Chinese scientists, which will bring new hope for increasing global rice and other crop yields. This gene can improve photosynthesis efficiency and nitrogen utilization efficiency, while making rice heading earlier, shortening the growth period, and significantly increasing rice yields. It provides a feasible solution for significantly increasing crop yields and reducing nitrogen fertilizer application, and achieving "green and efficient".

Wan Jianmin, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering and director of the Institute of Crop Sciences of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, commented that the major breakthrough of this study is not only the discovery that a single gene can simultaneously regulate multiple important physiological pathways , but also the breaking of the long-standing contradiction of "high yield without early maturity, early maturity without high yield" in agricultural production . "It provides new ideas and strategies for achieving crop yield increase and efficient resource utilization through the coordinated improvement of multiple physiological traits in the future, which will strongly promote the development of crop genetic breeding and crop physiology research."

Molecular and physiological mechanisms of action of OsDREB1C transcription factor

Zhou Wenbin, the corresponding author of the paper, said that judging from China's grain production situation, China's population is expected to reach 1.45 billion in 2030, which requires that the production capacity of major crops such as rice, wheat and corn be increased by more than 20%.

Zhou Wenbin said, "How to improve the efficiency of crop photosynthesis while improving nitrogen utilization efficiency and promoting the synergy of crop carbon and nitrogen metabolism to achieve high yield and high efficiency of crops is one of the important scientific issues in the current field of agricultural science."

Also based on this goal, Zhou Wenbin's team spent seven years , based on previous research, screening 118 genes that potentially regulate photosynthesis, and finally identified this high-yield gene in rice.

Research team members are planting rice in the rice fields

The research team conducted multi-year multi-site field trials in Beijing, Hangzhou, and Sanya from 2018 to 2022 and found that under long-day conditions in Beijing, overexpression of the gene in the rice variety "Nipponbare" can advance the heading period by 13-19 days compared to the wild type, with an average yield increase of 59.3%. The researchers further verified the function in the main rice variety Xiushui 134. The field trial in Hangzhou showed that overexpression of the gene in Xiushui 134 can advance the heading period by at least 2 days, with an average yield increase of 35.2%.

OsDREB1C overexpressing materials mature prematurely (OsDREB1C overexpressing materials on the right, control materials on the left)

Experts believe that the breeding and industrial application of this achievement is a very long process, and hope that the team will continue to work together to tackle the problem. At the same time, they also call on relevant departments to increase support to promote the transformation and application of this achievement.

The reviewers of the Science journal believe that the authors have done a great job in completing a large number of field experiments, including multi-year field experiments on different crops and in different locations, presenting comprehensive and reliable experimental results. The research results are remarkable, exciting and potentially influential. If they are applied to actual agricultural production, they will surely further promote the sustainable intensive production of crops such as rice.

When commenting on this achievement, Zhong Kang, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and a researcher at the Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, said that this gene has the function of simultaneously coordinating and regulating three important physiological processes: photosynthesis, nitrogen absorption and utilization, and heading period, achieving the dual synergy of "high yield and high nitrogen efficiency" and "high yield and early maturity" of crops. "This innovative research that improves multiple physiological traits through a single gene and achieves a breakthrough in yield has important theoretical value and guiding role in crop genetic breeding and field cultivation research."

Source: Science Popularization China WeChat Official Account