Environmental Science | Promote protection through utilization and improve the level of protection and utilization of germplasm resources

Germplasm resources are an important part of biodiversity, and the mainland is not only a country of biodiversity, but also a country of germplasm resources, with crops, forests, livestock and poultry, aquatic products, agricultural microorganisms and other germplasm resources very rich. However, there are still few successful cases of the exploration and utilization of breakthrough germplasm resources in mainland China, and there are problems such as unsystematic and incomplete and unable to meet the development needs of the seed industry. In order to promote the transformation of the mainland from a country with large germplasm resources to a country with strong germplasm resources, the Strategy and Action Plan for Biodiversity Conservation of China (2023-2030) regards the sustainable utilization of germplasm resources as one of the priority actions, and clearly points out that "strengthen the exploration, sorting, testing, screening and evaluation of traits and functions of biological resources" and "promote the in-depth integration of industry, university and research, and the integrated development of breeding, reproduction and promotion", so as to realize the sustainable utilization of germplasm resources and promote the conservation of germplasm resources.

1. The importance of germplasm resources

Germplasm resources refer to the genetic material and its carriers that carry biological information with actual or potential utilization value, and are the material basis for the survival and sustainable development of human society, the original innovation of life sciences and the development of the biological industry. The quantity and quality of germplasm resources possessed by a country, especially the breadth and depth of understanding of their characteristics and genetic laws, are important indicators to measure the level of agricultural biological science and crop breeding in a country. General Secretary Xi Jinping emphasized that "one seed can change a world". In order to enhance the core competitiveness of the mainland seed industry, it mainly depends on the innovation of varieties, and the key to variety innovation is to occupy as many excellent germplasm resources as possible. Therefore, "the seed industry is the chip of agriculture, and the germplasm resource is the chip of the seed industry".

2. Current status of conservation and utilization of germplasm resources in mainland China

The mainland is one of the four ancient civilizations, one of the eight internationally recognized origin centers of crops, and an important center of livestock and poultry genetic resources and domestication origin in the world. According to statistics, there are 1,339 species of cultivated crops in 455 categories, 1,930 species of wild relatives, 12,807 species of traditional Chinese medicine resources, more than 1,000 species of economic trees, and 948 varieties of livestock and poultry. However, with the rapid development of social economy, the promotion of new technologies and new varieties poses a huge threat to agricultural germplasm resources, and a large number of germplasm resources are on the verge of extinction.

In order to protect the precious agricultural germplasm resources, the mainland government has implemented protection measures since the 50s of the 20th century, and has now built a national crop germplasm resources protection system composed of 1 long-term bank, 1 duplicate bank, 10 mid-term banks, 72 germplasm nurseries and 224 in-situ conservation sites, preserving more than 540,000 copies of crop germplasm resources, becoming the world's second largest resource treasure house; There are 25 national protected areas, which have preserved 159 national and 449 provincial varieties, and also preserved 1.27 million copies of frozen semen, embryos, somatic cells, and other genetic materials; a system for the protection of aquatic germplasm resources, including 31 aquatic genetics and breeding centers and 84 national aquatic original seed farms, has been established, with a total of 800,000 copies preserved; and there is one national agricultural microbial strain preservation and management center on the mainland, which has safely preserved 23,000 copies of agricultural microorganisms for a long time, and has basically formed a protection system for agricultural microbial germplasm resources.

Every major breakthrough in mainland agriculture has benefited from the discovery, research and utilization of key germplasm resources. Scientists represented by Academician Yuan Longping have made the mainland hybrid rice breeding in the international leading position by creating new germplasms such as "wild defeat type", "Gang D type", "Yinshui type", "red lotus type" and "light and temperature sensitive" sterile lines. Academician Li Zhensheng transferred the disease resistance and stress resistance genes of Yanmai grass into wheat through distant hybridization, bred Xiaoyan series of new wheat varieties, and derived more than 70 improved varieties, with a cumulative promotion area of more than 300 million mu, of which Xiaoyan No. 6 alone promoted 150 million mu, which solved the problem of wheat stripe rust. Using the abundant local breed resources in the mainland, it has successively bred a total of 67 new varieties of high-quality yellow-feathered broilers such as Nongda No. 3 and Xinyang Green Shell and Wen's Xinxing Yellow Chicken, Lingnan Yellow Chicken, Snow Mountain Chicken, etc., which has enabled China's layer industry to get rid of its dependence on foreign breeds and form a huge high-quality broiler industry. New strains of anti-herpes virus disease-resistant carp bred in mainland China using fish genetic resources have greatly reduced the frequency and amount of veterinary drugs. These successful cases of discovery and utilization of germplasm resources all show that excellent agricultural germplasm resources are the genetic source of variety improvement.

3. Strengthen the sustainable use of germplasm resources in the mainland

The ultimate purpose of germplasm resource conservation is to utilize, and only by achieving a balanced development of protection and utilization can we comprehensively improve the level of germplasm resources in mainland China. The sustainable use of germplasm resources includes four aspects:

The first is to deeply explore the direct utilization value of germplasm resources. Although most of the germplasm resources have not adapted to human needs in the historical development process, different germplasm resources have unique excellent characteristics. Products that meet the needs of the environment and modern human health can not only bring ancient germplasm resources back to work, but also motivate users to protect them, thereby promoting the conservation of germplasm resources.

The second is to continue to carry out accurate genotype and phenotype identification of germplasm resources. Although germplasm resources are generally not as good as modern varieties of comprehensive traits, they may have one or several excellent traits, and the genes related to excellent traits can be discovered through accurate identification of genotype and phenotype for future biological breeding technology, which will greatly promote the development of the biological industry. Therefore, it is necessary to establish a joint identification platform for phenotype and genotype of germplasm resources, carry out in-depth analysis of the regulatory loci of important traits in the whole genome, comprehensively grasp the genetic laws of their trait characteristics and excellent traits, establish a high-throughput excavation technology system of gene resources for in-depth mining of phenotype and genotype, realize the large-scale and precise exploration of excellent genetic resources, transform the advantages of germplasm resources into genetic advantages, and provide important genetic resources for supporting agricultural biological breeding.

Third, the combination of traditional and modern breeding technology can improve the utilization efficiency of germplasm resources. Through the combination of traditional technologies such as distant hybridization, physicochemical mutagenesis, and hybrid recombination with new technologies such as genome editing and biosynthesis, and the use of modern genetic engineering and other high and new technologies, we will gradually solve the bottleneck problem of narrow genetic base and lack of breakthrough germplasm and breeding materials, build a germplasm innovation technology system that is closely connected with the creation of new germplasm and the cultivation of new varieties, strengthen the original innovation of germplasm resources, and rapidly create a number of crops, livestock and poultry with industrial development and utilization value. Breakthrough new germplasm of aquatic products and agricultural microorganisms has laid a solid foundation for supporting and leading the original innovation of seed science and technology.

Fourth, strengthen the sharing and utilization mechanism of germplasm resources. Through the construction of genetic resources information infrastructure such as germplasm resources basic network system, management information system, Internet of Things system, phenotypic data automatic collection system and shared service system, a national big data platform for the management, research and development and sharing of agricultural germplasm resources will be built, so as to realize the standardization, informatization, networking and intelligent management of germplasm resources, provide support for the collection, protection, research and utilization of germplasm resources, and provide users with efficient germplasm resource information and physical sharing services. Encourage public welfare research institutions and seed enterprises to carry out substantive cooperation in resource innovation, and accelerate the transformation and application of agricultural germplasm resource innovation achievements in seed industry innovation.

IV. Conclusion

In recent years, the CPC Central Committee and the State Council have attached great importance to the protection and utilization of germplasm resources, and General Secretary Xi Jinping has repeatedly emphasized the importance of germplasm resource protection. Although the conservation and utilization of germplasm resources in mainland China has made remarkable achievements, there is a huge gap between them and the requirements of General Secretary Xi Jinping's "four aspects". Therefore, on the basis of adhering to the principle of "collecting all that should be collected and ensuring all that should be guaranteed", the work of germplasm resources in mainland China should be carried out in accordance with the principle of "giving priority to protection and promoting protection by utilization", so as to realize the balanced development of the protection and sustainable utilization of germplasm resources and comprehensively improve the level of protection and utilization of germplasm resources in mainland China.