Seeds are the "chip" of agriculture, and the progress of seed technology is the foundation of agricultural development and an important prerequisite for ensuring the food security of 1.4 billion people. The "14th Five-Year Plan for Promoting Agricultural and Rural Modernization" proposes to accelerate the implementation of major scientific and technological projects in agricultural biological breeding and orderly promote the industrialization and application of biological breeding. The "14th Five-Year Plan for the Development of the Bioe economy" issued by the National Development and Reform Commission also lists the modern seed industry upgrading project as one of the seven major projects of the bioeconomy. This issue invites several experts to discuss biological breeding.
Moderator: Xu Xiangmei, director and researcher of the Theory Department of economic daily newspaper
Guarantee that "Chinese grain" mainly uses "Chinese seeds"
Host: What is the current status of biological breeding development in mainland China? What are the advantages and disadvantages?
Yao Yingyan (Professor, College of Agronomy, China Agricultural University): Food security is the "great power of the country", and cultivating excellent varieties is the fundamental way to ensure national food security. Internationally, breeding development is divided into four typical stages: human beings in the breeding 1.0 era domesticated a large number of wild plants into agricultural civilization; breeders in the breeding 2.0 era mainly rely on experience and apply statistics, quantitative genetics and hybrid breeding strategies to the selection of excellent varieties; Advanced biotechnology in the breeding 3.0 era includes molecular marker-assisted selection, and genetic engineering is widely used in breeding; With the development of artificial intelligence, gene editing, synthetic biology and other disciplines, breeding has entered the era of "biotechnology + information technology + artificial intelligence" led by cutting-edge science and technology.
Traditional conventional breeding mostly relies on the experience of breeders, and the breeding efficiency is low, the accuracy is poor, and the breeding cycle is long. Based on the theories of genetics, molecular biology, genomics, computational biology and systems biology, biological breeding relies on advanced biotechnology, is inseparable from basic research in life sciences, and will become a decisive force supporting the rapid development of the modern seed industry in the future.
Since the Eighteenth National Congress of the Communist Party of China, the mainland has made great achievements in the development of seed industry. The number of major crop varieties approved nationwide has increased significantly, the coverage rate of fine varieties of major grain crops has exceeded 96%, and the contribution rate of varieties to yield has increased to 45%, which has played an important role in ensuring food security on the mainland and the stable supply of important agricultural products. The huge supporting force behind the leapfrog development of the seed industry is the scientific and technological innovation of the seed industry, especially the rapid development of biological breeding relying on advanced biotechnology.
Basic research in the field of biological breeding is constantly innovating and making breakthroughs. The mainland has collected and preserved a wealth of crop endemic varieties, wild species and wild relatives, and currently preserves more than 520,000 crop germplasm resources, ranking second in the world in number, which is an important material and valuable wealth for carrying out basic research on biological breeding, important gene mining, and breeding of excellent varieties. Using these resources, mainland scientists have carried out a large number of pioneering and systematic research on international cutting-edge scientific issues from the levels of genomics, genetics, and molecular biology, and made breakthroughs. It is the first in the world to construct a whole genome sequence framework map of rice, and clones a number of new genes with great breeding value, such as regulatory plant type, nitrogen efficient utilization, low temperature resistance, drought resistance, salinity resistance, disease resistance, and new herbicide resistance, and gradually utilize them in breeding. The team of Professor Kong Lingrang of Shandong Agricultural University and the team of Professor Ma Zhengqiang of Nanjing Agricultural University cloned the key genes of wheat resistance to gibberellosis, providing important genetic resources for overcoming wheat cancer gibberellosis.
The continuous iterative upgrading of advanced biological breeding technology is becoming a powerful driving force for the leapfrog development of the modern seed industry in mainland China. Molecular design breeding, gene editing, haplotype breeding, transgenic technology, biological engineering and other technologies continue to innovate and make subversive breakthroughs, these technologies are gradually applied in crop breeding, significantly improving breeding efficiency. Huang Sanwen's team at the Shenzhen Institute of Agricultural Genomics of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences applied the theory and method system of "genome design" to cultivate hybrid potatoes, replace tetraploids with diploids, and replace potato block propagation with hybrid seed propagation, which is expected to subvert the production mode of innovative potato industry. Academician Li Jiayang's team from the Institute of Genetics and Developmental Biology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences proposed a new strategy of rapid de novo domestication, which rapidly domesticated polyploid wild rice into a new type of polyploid rice with excellent agronomic traits through genome design and gene editing, greatly improved the yield and adaptability of environmental changes, provided an important reference for the domestication of other wild and semi-wild plants from scratch to create new crops, and opened up a new way to cultivate high-yield and widely adaptable new crops.
Using the combination of advanced biological breeding technology and conventional breeding, a number of breakthrough excellent varieties have been cultivated and promoted, ensuring that "Chinese grains" mainly use "Chinese varieties". Since the founding of the People's Republic of China, the breeding of major crops has achieved 5 to 6 new varieties of upgrading, and 16,800 major crop varieties have been approved during the "13th Five-Year Plan" period, more than double that of the "12th Five-Year Plan" period. In recent years, breakthroughs have been made in new varieties of crops such as high-quality rice, high-yield high-quality wheat, and high-yield machine-harvested corn. Adhering to the breeding concept of "combining morphological improvement and utilization of hybrid advantages", the yield potential of hybrid rice varieties has been continuously improved, and the ultra-high-yield hybrid rice represented by Jingliangyouhuazhan, Jingliangyouhuazhan, Jingliangyouhuazhan, etc., has made outstanding contributions to farmers' production and income increase and national food security in the process of large-scale promotion. The research on rice molecular module design and breeding technology leads the development direction of international breeding, and academician Li Jiayang's team uses molecular design breeding technology to couple molecular modules such as control grain type, rice blast resistance, excellent rice quality, and lodging resistance, and cultivates the iconic rice variety "Zhongke 804" through precise orientation design.
The R&D investment of mainland seed enterprises has continued to increase, and the competitiveness has been significantly improved. The scale of the national "seed industry aircraft carrier" systems has initially formed, and the scale and overall competitiveness of the biological seed industry have been significantly improved. The mainland crop and livestock and poultry breeding market is close to 600 billion yuan, becoming the world's largest seed market. According to the statistics of the "2021 China Crop Seed Industry Development Report", there are 6118 seed enterprises in the mainland in 2020, with total assets of 242.521 billion yuan and 432 companies with total assets of more than 100 million yuan, of which 27 enterprises with more than 1 billion yuan have achieved seed sales income of 77.710 billion yuan and profits of 6.957 billion yuan. In the past few years, Chinese seed enterprises represented by Syngenta, Longping Hi-Tech, etc., have emerged in the international seed industry market, and their influence is increasing day by day, Longping Hi-Tech ranked among the top ten in the global seed industry in 2017, and through endogenous growth and epitaxial mergers and acquisitions, it has begun to take shape as a prototype of China's seed industry aircraft carrier.
The mainland's biological seed industry has continuously innovated in science and technology, and the scientific and technological foundation and scientific research strength have become increasingly strong, but there are also some problems.
First, the basic theoretical research on major originality of biological breeding is not in-depth enough, and there are few independent original exploratory studies, especially the lack of key genes and molecular modules with major breeding and utilization value.
Second, compared with the level of scientific and technological innovation in the international seed industry, the original innovation of the key technologies of biological breeding in the mainland is backward, the core link technology is not mastered enough, the research force is scattered, and a joint force has not yet been formed.
Third, the investment in scientific and technological research and development of seed industry enterprises is insufficient, and the annual research and development investment of the top 50 seed enterprises is about 1.3 billion yuan, which is far less than the investment scale of Monsanto in the United States and Bayer in Germany in the same period.
Fourth, the industrialization of relevant achievements such as genetically modified organism breeding and gene editing breeding with independent intellectual property rights urgently needs a breakthrough, and with the gradual liberalization of the national policy on the industrialization of genetically modified organism breeding, the industrialization of biological breeding will usher in major benefits. The international biological breeding industry market has been concentrated in a small number of large enterprises, and scale, collectivization and globalization have become the general trend of biological breeding development. We must seize the opportunity to establish a complete set of innovation systems that run through the whole industrial chain such as basic research, technical research, product creation, demonstration and promotion, etc., rapidly promote the industrialization of biological breeding, and achieve leapfrog development of the biological seed industry.
Biotechnology leads the seed industry to disruptive innovation
Moderator: Please share the exploration practice and successful experience of enterprises in the biological breeding industry.
Lv Yuping [R&D expert of grain and oil crop biological breeding "chip", general manager of Longping Biotechnology (Hainan) Co., Ltd.): To win the battle of turning the seed industry around, it is necessary to take into account both research and development and industrialization, especially products that must have market competitiveness. Based on this concept, Longping Biotechnology (Hainan) Co., Ltd. was established in 2019 and began to carry out research and development of key "chip" technologies for biological breeding of major grain and oil crops.
From the perspective of the development law and trend of the international seed industry, the research and development of the international first-class seed industry is entering the era of intelligent design breeding 4.0 from the era of molecular breeding 3.0. Biological breeding technologies, represented by transgenes, gene editing, and molecular markers, are disrupting the seed industry. International seed giant Monsanto (acquired by Bayer for $63 billion in 2018) began to develop genetically modified technology in the 1980s, and then through technology leadership and continuous mergers and acquisitions, a total of 350 different types of seed companies have been acquired, from a chemical company to an international seed giant and has always maintained a leading position.
Throughout Monsanto's history, biotechnology has been the most central success factor. At present, the curtain of the commercialization of genetically modified organisms in the seed industry is about to open, and the biotechnology represented by genetically modified organisms will bring fundamental changes to the seed industry in the mainland. Monsanto's more than 30 years of commercialization of the seed industry relying on genetically modified biotechnology has provided a useful reference for the mainland seed industry.
Biotechnology has the characteristics of high technical barriers, large R&D investment, and long development cycle, so research and development is relatively difficult. Longping Biology is engaged in the research and development of precision breeding and trait improvement of corn and soybean seeds for food crops, among which the transgenic "chip" technology of insect resistance and herbicide resistance is the "card neck" link of the current mainland seed industry. In 2021, the mainland will import nearly 30 million tons of corn, and if the average yield is less than 500 kilograms, more than 60 million mu of land will be needed. Soybean imports are even more, nearly 100 million tons, and industry experts say that 790 million mu of arable land is needed to produce this volume of soybeans. Referring to the current situation of many people and little land and scarce arable land resources, it is impossible to rely on expanding the planting area to achieve supply. Although corn is no longer used as a staple food for the people, it is related to the rice bowl of all the people. Corn is known as the "king of feed", and 60% of mainland corn is used for feed and 40% for industry. In the feed, corn accounts for 60% of the feed, which is an important energy feed raw material for the aquaculture industry. If there is not enough feed, it will directly affect the output and product prices of pigs, chickens and other breeding industries. Although the mainland is a large producer of corn, the average yield per acre is only equivalent to 50% to 60% of that of the United States, and it still needs to be imported in large quantities. To improve the self-sufficiency rate of corn, we must rely on improving the yield per mu, the most important of which is to play the role of good seeds. Cultivating high-yielding, high-quality, multi-resistant varieties through biotechnology is the only way.
The industrialization of biological breeding in mainland China has only been studied for more than 10 years, while the United States has been more than 50 years old. The current mainstream technology is to put 1 gene or 2 genes on a vector and then transform it. When Longping Biology established the 007 biological breeding "chip" technology project and carried out product design, it was positioned at the high starting point of "no one has me, people have my superiority", subversive innovation and large-span differentiation can have breakthroughs, markets, and latecomer advantages.
In terms of corn product research and development, Longping 007 "chip" contains 3 insect resistance genes and 1 herbicide resistance gene, and the market prospect is broad. The improved varieties can effectively resist nearly 10 pests, and the yield of corn has increased by more than 15%. In the process of corn growth, pesticides are basically used, and farmers increase their income by at least 200 yuan per mu of land.
With the international leading level of corn biological breeding technology, in just over 3 years, this team with strong scientific research ability has become a strong boost for the research and development and industrialization of hainan corn biotechnology, and has a demonstration effect on building a national key industrial park - Yazhou Science and Technology City "Biological Seed Industry South Fan Silicon Valley". At present, it has developed a number of products with excellent resistance and obtained more than 10 national invention patents.
At present, the construction of the Yazhou Bay Seed Laboratory in Hainan Province is progressing smoothly and will become a new highland for biological breeding research and development in mainland China. Longping Biology will continue to lead the core technology innovation of the seed industry with biotechnology, drive the upgrading of the seed industry chain with market-oriented product research and development, and walk out of a road of innovative development of the biological seed industry with Chinese characteristics.
Smart breeding will become the core competitiveness of the seed industry
Host: How to strengthen the combination of biological breeding and information technology to accelerate intelligent breeding?
Qian Qian (Academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Director of the Institute of Crop Sciences, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences): At present, the development of the global seed industry has entered a period of unprecedented intensive innovation and industrial change, and crop breeding is ushering in the era of "biotechnology + artificial intelligence + big data" with new biotechnologies such as gene editing and new generation sequencing, and information technology such as image recognition and machine learning. Wisdom breeding is a new opportunity brought by the development of science and technology, it is expected that in the next 10 to 20 years, the development of smart breeding is bound to become the core value and competitiveness of the seed industry, from traditional breeding to molecular breeding to wisdom breeding, breeding "scientific" component content is more and more, "art" component content is less and less. The combination of biotechnology and information technology promotes the development of breeding in the direction of precision, efficiency and scale. The mainland seed industry is facing the monopoly of multinational companies and the high degree of dependence of the industry on foreign countries, which has brought new challenges to crop breeding, and breeding technology urgently needs revolutionary changes.
Increase the research and development of basic platforms, build a basic information collection platform for biotechnology and information technology, and drive industrial development. With the rise of cutting-edge biotechnology such as gene editing and synthetic biology, developed countries such as the United States and multinational seed companies have continuously strengthened the construction of high-throughput, large-scale, large-scale and automated scientific and technological infrastructure to accelerate agricultural biotechnology innovation. Developed countries and regions such as Europe and the United States have successively established major scientific and technological infrastructure such as high-throughput crop phenotyping platforms to accelerate the pace of crop gene design and breeding. Research institutions such as MIT and the International Rice Research Institute have established platforms related to molecular design and breeding such as crop gene editing, whole genome selection, and synthetic biology, focusing on theoretical and applied basic research. The mainland should also deploy a number of world-class scientific and technological information collection and service platforms around cutting-edge technologies and key areas of biological breeding, and provide platform support for basic, cutting-edge and leading core technology research.
Strengthen the technological innovation of scientific breeding chassis, and lay out cutting-edge leading technologies such as gene editing and artificial intelligence. Machine learning method is the core of artificial intelligence, crop whole genome selection technology will be integrated into machine learning methods and other artificial intelligence core technology, that is, through the automatic acquisition and analysis of data such as genotype and phenotype, to achieve rapid accumulation of big data, through the construction of a quantitative genetic model between multi-dimensional information, to carry out rapid mining of plant trait regulatory genes and accurate prediction of phenotype, to achieve intelligent design of breeding schemes. At the same time, it integrates cutting-edge high-tech such as whole genome selection and gene editing, transgenic technology, etc., and continues to promote the transformation and upgrading of traditional breeding technology, and develops towards precision, efficiency and scale.
Establish a shared database for accurate identification of germplasm resources, and cultivate superior germplasm resource groups and diversified chassis breeding resources. Germplasm resources are not only strategic resources to ensure national food security and the supply of important agricultural products, but also the material basis for the original innovation of agricultural science and technology and the development of modern seed industry. Relying on massive storage and high-performance computing technology, building a digital germplasm resource bank, and digitizing massive seed genes can lay the foundation for artificial intelligence breeding. In the context of high-throughput sequencing of big data, the international genome data of major crops has a relatively complete database system, one of the tasks of smart breeding is to establish a crop breeding data extraction, mining, storage, analysis, sharing database based on germplasm resource information, integrate multi-omics data for joint analysis, break through the underlying support technology such as biological big data acquisition, analysis, mining, etc., establish an integrated intelligent breeding strategy of "data-technology-algorithm-decision-making", improve breeding accuracy, and shorten the breeding cycle. Establish a high-efficiency crop intelligent breeding system.
Establish a goal-oriented collaborative research team of science and technology enterprises to promote the role of smart breeding in actual breeding. On the one hand, compared with multinational companies, our current research and development system with research groups as the unit and the separation of upstream, middle and lower reaches lacks conditions such as large-group breeding. On the other hand, the mainland seed industry market concentration is low, the ability of scientific and technological innovation is insufficient, the investment in scientific research is small, and the investment efficiency is low, and compared with multinational companies, it is unlikely that the whole chain of intelligent breeding will be implemented within a single enterprise. Therefore, it is imperative to organically integrate the R&D chain and the industrial chain, gather the advantages of scientific research institutions and seed industry enterprises, and implement the goal-oriented scientific research model of science and technology enterprise cooperation.
In June 2021, the Institute of Crop Sciences of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences and Alibaba reached a cooperation to jointly promote the establishment of a "smart breeding" platform that deeply integrates biotechnology (BT), information technology (IT) and intelligent technology (AT), providing important technical support for accelerating the cultivation of new crop varieties. Figuratively speaking, the smart breeding public service platform is like a "central kitchen", breeding experts are "chefs", by selecting "ingredients" and "ingredients", according to the crop genotype, phenotype, cultivation measures, climate and environmental data and relevant image data in the breeding process query and joint analysis, simulating "cooking" the "dish" they want. Relying on the crop genetic resources and national major scientific project facilities such as crop genetic resources and genetic improvement of the Institute of Crop Sciences of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, and with the help of Alibaba's advantages in big data processing, storage and analysis, the cooperation will build an intelligent "smart breeding public service platform" covering the whole chain of crop breeding, provide public welfare and inclusive research support services for domestic breeding experts, realize the digital management of the whole process of crop breeding, improve the level of crop breeding informatization and breeding efficiency, and provide green, high-quality, The selection and breeding of breakthrough varieties such as high efficiency provide strong support.
Source: Economic Daily