Although the weather is getting colder, a piece of news on these two days makes everyone's heart warm.
A few days ago, a doctoral student at Zhejiang University bought oranges online. After the merchant learned that it was used for experiments, he immediately said that he would directly give away a box according to the needs of doctoral students, "can't help the country, and when it encounters it, it wants to do something."
Conversations at the time of purchase
The development of the matter can be described as a great joy: the doctoral students sent screenshots of the dialogue to the campus forum, the students who were moved to the store found this store to buy oranges, and all the students of Zhejiang University also received the "positive energy certificate".
Everyone is praising fruit farmers and Zhejiang university students, how no one cares about oranges! What research will they be used for?!
According to the information of the official public account of Zhejiang University, the doctoral student who bought oranges is xiao Xiao'e, who is a doctoral student majoring in plant pathology in the College of Agriculture and Biotechnology of Zhejiang University. Xiao bought oranges to do research on pest control, "to inoculate the fungus on healthy citrus and see the infection of citrus." ”[1]
Citrus blue mold & green mold 丨Gerald Holmes / forestryimages.org
This is one of the many things xiao'e's team does.
Xiao Xiao'e's supervisor, Professor Li Hongye, has been adhering to the cause of citrus in China for nearly 20 years. Professor Li Hongye's laboratory has three research areas: the molecular biology of Penicillium finger and Streptomyces interspersed, the phylogenetic development of plant pathogenic fungi, and citrus fungal diseases and their control [2].
In simple terms, it is a "team of doctors" who show mycosis to plants, especially citrus.
Some of Professor Li Hongye's papers, click to see the big picture丨 References[2]
Like people seeing a doctor, online consultation is far less accurate than in-person diagnosis. But plants don't move around on their own, and many times, they need to be personally visited by a "doctor".
According to the Qianjiang Evening News And Hourly News, Li Hongye's team once received several sick citrus from Xishuangbanna. It is suspected that the fungus is causing it, but the results of the experiment are insufficient to diagnose the following. Li Hongye rushed to the orchard thousands of miles away to conduct a "face-to-face examination" of citrus. After observing the branches and leaves of the fruit trees, the cause was found: it was not a fungal infection, but an insect infestation. [3]
Oranges that still hang on the branches are infected with Penicillium digitatum, causing citrus green mold丨 apsnet.org
For decades, doing experiments in laboratories, controlling plant diseases in orchards, and conducting agricultural technology training in various places, Li Hongye and his team won one municipal science and technology progress award, two provincial science and technology progress awards, and also won the first prize of natural science of the Ministry of Education.
We always teach children that when eating fruits and vegetables, we should thank the farmers for their hard work. In fact, when we eat more and more sweet and affordable fruits, there are also generations of agricultural science and technology practitioners to invest enthusiasm and sweat.
Professor Li Hongye's laboratory focuses on fungal infections of plants. This is very new to many people: we usually know that plants are sick, but they are only insect pests, aphids, locusts, snails. Are plants infected by microorganisms really that powerful?
In the science fiction movie "Interstellar", crops have become extinct one after another, forcing people to take risks. The culprit in the play that makes the plant fall in pieces is likely to be a fungal infection of crops.
In reality, there are many fungi that can cause plants to wither. For example, cucumber vine blight caused by didymella bryoniae, camellia rot caused by the fungus Ciborinia camelliae, and so on. Fungi cause crops to wilt, possibly due to their proliferation in plants: these pathogens block vascular bundles, obstruct the delivery of water and nutrients, and eventually lead to necrosis of plant cells and no harvest of farmland particles.
Isoconopores causing corn spotted disease are cloned spores and hyphal fragments 丨Cesar Calderon, USDA APHIS PPQ, Bugwood.org
In addition, pathogenic bacteria can also cause huge losses to crops, the most famous of which is citrus dragon disease caused by bacterial infections. Infected fruit trees will grow tall, have difficulty picking, and turn their leaves yellow at the seedling stage, but at the ripening stage, the flesh will become bitter, directly causing the fruit to not be sold [4].
(Cucumber cranberry blight (left), onion leaf blight (center) and camellia rot (right) 丨Gerald Holmes, California Polytechnic State University at San Luis Obispo, Bugwood.org / Howard F. Schwartz, Colorado State University, Bugwood.org/Clemson.) University - USDA Cooperative Extension Slide Series, Bugwood.org）
According to a 2002 statistic, losses due to diseases, pests, weeds and other factors account for 30 to 40 percent of the world's total food production, of which about 14 percent are caused by diseases, and $220 billion worth of food is fed to plant pathogens in vain.
Take Florida's citrus industry, for example: between 2010 and 2011, citrus production fell by 44 million cases due to citrus dragon disease, accounting for 24% of projected production, while the average price of orange juice was 15% higher than expected because of reduced citrus supply.
Compare the heart to the heart, imagine that there is a bacterium that eats documents specifically, will make you use half a year to finally finish the document, permanently lose 80% of the content, and then write it again for half a year, are you sad?
Plants are infected by microorganisms, and it is not only the income of fruit growers that are affected.
Between 2006 and 2011, more than 8,000 people lost their jobs in Florida due to the decline of the entire citrus industry chain, and 133947 acres of orchards were abandoned.
Plant diseases can also directly or indirectly harm human health. The famous "Fire of St. Anthony" in history was caused by the consumption of wheat infected with the bacterium Claviceps purpurea. Ergotyldiethylamine can lead to hallucinations, joint damage, and even death. There are also occasional news of food discoloration sugarcane poisoning in China, which is because arthrinium fungi infected with sugarcane produce mycotoxin 3-nitropropionic acid, which affects the central nervous system.
Patients with ergot poisoning 丨Mathias Grünewald
In addition, all kinds of insecticides (insect carriers that kill pathogens) and fungicides used to control plant diseases not only endanger the health of growers, but also increase the cost of planting crops.
To protect the health and safety of crops is to protect people's health and safety. From the orchard to the table, this production and transportation chain is long, and there are countless people standing guard. A tribute to the fruit farmers who support scientific research, but also to the researchers who adhere to agricultural science and technology, do you eat oranges today?
bibliography
[1] What kind of research did this doctoral student at Zhejiang University do because of the purchase of oranges? https://tm.zjol.com.cn/news.html?id=467257
[2] https://person.zju.edu.cn/lihongye#581292
[3] http://www.thehour.cn/news/481246.html
Han Heyou, Cheng S H, Song Z Y, et al. Drug control strategy for citrus xanthala disease[J]. Journal of Huazhong Agricultural University, 2021.
Author: Xiaokui Li, Vincentheo, Owl
Edit: luna
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