7 Achievements of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences Win National Science and Technology Awards

This website news  On January 9, the 2014 National Science and Technology Awards Conference was held at the Great Hall of the People. The Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, as the first completing institution, had a total of 7 achievements that won National Science and Technology Awards, including 5 Second Prizes of the National Science and Technology Progress Award and 2 Second Prizes of the National Technological Invention Award.

Academician Fang Zhiyuan of the Institute of Vegetables and Flowers presided over the completion of “Establishment of a Breeding Technology System for Cabbage Male Sterile Lines and Selection and Breeding of New Varieties”; Researcher Tang Huajun of the Institute of Agricultural Resources and Regional Planning presided over the completion of “Remote Sensing Monitoring Technology for Agricultural Drought and Flood Disasters”; Researcher Li Lihui of the Institute of Crop Sciences presided over the completion of “Evaluation and Innovative Utilization of Important Breeding Target Traits in Wheat Germplasm Resources”; Researcher Zhu Defeng of the China National Rice Research Institute presided over the completion of “Key Technologies for High-Yield Cultivation of Super Rice and Regional Integrated Application”; and Researcher Yao Bin of the Feed Research Institute presided over the completion of “Innovation of Feed Enzyme Technology System and Creation of Key Products” - these 5 achievements each won the Second Prize of the National Science and Technology Progress Award. Researcher Wang Hanzhong of the Oil Crops Research Institute presided over the completion of “Polymerization Breeding Technology and Application for High Oil Content in Rapeseed”; and Researcher Wang Qiang of the Institute of Food Science and Technology presided over the completion of “Key Technologies and Equipment Creation for Low-Temperature Pressing Oil Production from Peanuts and High-Value Utilization of Meal Protein” - these 2 achievements each won the Second Prize of the National Technological Invention Award.

The research team led by Academician Fang Zhiyuan first discovered a dominant nuclear gene male sterile source in cabbage and established a breeding technology system for sterile lines, and was the first to establish a selection technique for obtaining excellent CMSR3 cytoplasmic male sterile lines through transfer breeding with self-compatible lines. They created a group of excellent cabbage backbone inbred lines for male sterile line transfer breeding, bred 6 breakthrough new cabbage varieties, which were promoted cumulatively across 25 provinces, regions and municipalities nationwide on nearly 10 million mu, with about 3 billion yuan in additional social and economic benefits. Through research, they opened a new pathway for hybrid seed production of cabbage, enriched the theory and practice of vegetable male sterility genetics and breeding, and played an important role in raising the level of vegetable breeding, ensuring vegetable supply, and resisting the impact of foreign vegetable varieties.

Tang Huajun's research team broke through 3 major technical problems in remote sensing monitoring of agricultural drought and flood disasters: low monitoring accuracy, poor response timeliness, and small application scope; created a theory of full remote sensing inversion of evapotranspiration and full-process analysis of floods adapted to complex disaster situations, promoting the development of China's theoretical system for remote sensing monitoring of agricultural drought and flood disasters. They broke through key technologies such as integrated rapid acquisition of disaster information from satellite, aircraft and ground, dynamic analysis of drought and flood disasters, and disaster loss assessment, solving the technical problems of low accuracy and poor timeliness of remote sensing monitoring and assessment under complex disaster conditions in China. They established China's first high-precision, large-scale and short-cycle remote sensing monitoring system for drought and flood disasters, achieving routine monitoring of national drought disasters once every ten days and emergency monitoring once every 3 days, and for the first time achieving the reporting of quantitative assessment results of agricultural flood disaster losses within 4 hours after remote sensing image acquisition.

Li Lihui's research team developed a new technology capable of simultaneously identifying multiple important breeding target traits such as resistance to pre-harvest sprouting, resistance to Fusarium head blight, and resistance to sheath blight, as well as multiple genotypes such as protein composition and exogenous target genes, in many germplasm resources with different growth periods within the same growing season, and established a new pathway in which resources lead breeding and break through the narrow genetic base. They created a technical system for the discovery and efficient utilization of excellent germplasm resources, and opened a new model for the coordinated development of crop germplasm resources and breeding under a market economy. Using the excellent germplasm resources provided by the results, 34 new varieties were bred, with a cumulative planting area of 133 million mu for the new varieties, generating 5.5 billion yuan in social and economic benefits.

Zhu Defeng's research team revealed the high-yield growth characteristics of super rice varieties, clarified the common patterns of high-yield formation in super rice, proposed practical indicators for constructing high-yield populations of super rice varieties, and established key technologies for high-yield cultivation of super rice. From 2011–2013, the application area in major super rice promotion provinces exceeded 100 million mu, increasing rice output by 6.4 million tons, with cumulative efficiency gains of nearly 14 billion yuan, achieving enormous economic, social and ecological benefits and making important contributions to China's consecutive years of grain production increase.

Yao Bin's research team established an efficient technology system for mining enzymes and their gene resources, broke through research on the structure-activity mechanism and efficient expression mechanism of enzymes, and constructed an efficient expression technology system reaching an expression level of 10-50g/L. They created a variety of feed enzymes, with production levels more than 3 times higher than similar technologies. The products were promoted and applied in 31 provinces, regions and municipalities nationwide, occupying more than 80% of the market and exported to more than 20 countries. They saved 60 million tons of resources and reduced pollution emissions by more than 10 million tons.

Wang Hanzhong led a research team to establish the currently largest oil content research population with the most extensive genotypic variation, and through unique genetic experiments proved for the first time that the maternal genotype has the greatest effect on seed oil content (up to 86%), and for the first time identified 4 high-oil resources containing 5 different oil content regulatory pathways and 4 new functional genes for oil content regulation with independent intellectual property rights. For the first time, association analysis was combined with genetic population linkage analysis to study rapeseed oil content, clarifying that oil content is not obviously correlated with yield and its main component traits. They created 5 new rapeseed varieties (hybrids) with completely independent intellectual property rights that are high in oil content, double-low, high-yield, multi-resistant and widely adaptable, among which Zhongshuang No. 11 is currently the world's first double-low rapeseed variety integrating high oil content (49.04%), strong pod shatter resistance, high lodging resistance and resistance to Sclerotinia stem rot, and its oil content is the highest among currently nationally approved winter rapeseed varieties in China, effectively overcoming the contradiction between high oil content and double-low, high-yield and multi-resistance.

Wang Qiang's research team invented technology and equipment for combined production of low-temperature pressed peanut oil and meal protein, achieving innovation in traditional oil production technology. They invented preparation and modification technology for peanut conglutin and protein concentrate, filling a domestic gap. They invented preparation technology for functional peanut short peptides, greatly increasing product added value. The results were transformed and applied by enterprises, with cumulative sales revenue of 15 billion yuan over 3 years, 800 million yuan in new profits and 200 million yuan in taxes. This achievement overcame the bottleneck technology and equipment problems currently existing in the peanut processing industry, pioneered low-temperature pressing of peanuts and high-value utilization of protein, and provided scientific and technological support for improving the nutritional quality of grain and oil and ensuring national grain and oil security.

In addition, the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, as a participating institution, also won 2 National Science and Technology Awards. Among them, “Mining of Genes Related to Heterosis Utilization in Indica-Japonica Rice Hybrids and Breeding of New Varieties” completed with participation by the Institute of Crop Sciences won the Second Prize of the National Technological Invention Award, and “Development and Application of Green Pest Control Technology for Highland Barley and Forage Grass Pests on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau” completed with participation by the Institute of Plant Protection won the Second Prize of the National Science and Technology Progress Award.