Rapeseed is the largest oil crop in mainland China, and its oil production accounts for more than 55% of the total output of domestic oil crops. Weed control has always been a major problem in rapeseed production.
The data show that the grass damage area of winter rape in the Yangtze River basin of mainland China is 46.9%, and the grass damage area of spring rape area in the north is as high as more than 90%. Grass damage can reduce rapeseed yield by 15.8%, and severe field yield reduction can reach more than 50%. Because rape is a dicot plant, no safe and efficient dicotyledon herbicide has been developed in the production of rapeseed field, so the prevention and control of such weeds is mainly manual uprooting, which is inefficient and time-consuming. According to statistics, only in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River, the annual weeding of rape fields requires about 80 million ~ 100 million yuan of labor costs. Therefore, the creation of new herbicide-tolerant rapeseed germplasm suitable for the production needs of mainland China is of great significance for cultivating herbicide-resistant rapeseed varieties and ensuring the security of oil supply in mainland China.
Faced with this urgent problem in production, since 2004, the rapeseed innovation team of Jiangsu Academy of Agricultural Sciences has begun to tackle key problems in the creation of herbicide-resistant germplasm. The team found that sulfonylurea herbicides belong to the category of ALS inhibitor herbicides, which can inhibit the activity of ALS and lead to the obstruction of the synthesis of branched-chain amino acids, so as to achieve the purpose of herbicide, and have the advantages of high efficiency and low amount, wide herbicidal spectrum, short soil residue period and environmental friendliness. Based on this, the research team used EMS mutagenesis and herbicide targeted screening to create two new mutations in the ALS1 gene for the first time in the world. Through two mutagenesis and polymerization, the new germplasm of double mutant sulfonylurea herbicide was created, and after many years of identification, the resistance effect of the new germplasm reached 12~16 times of the recommended herbicidal concentration of sulfonylurea herbicide, which had high production safety and important utilization value.
"Hongyou 789" is a new herbicide-resistant rapeseed variety selected and bred by Fu Sanxiong, a researcher of Jiangsu Academy of Agricultural Sciences, for 6 years, which has four antibodies (herbicide resistance, cold resistance, lodging resistance, antibacterial sclerotinia resistance), two highs (high yield, high oil), and has the advantages of large horn fruit, good ripeness, and good comprehensive traits. In the comparative test of new rapeseed varieties in the lower reaches of the Yangtze River, the average yield of "Hongyou 789" per mu was 218.69 kg, which was 8.43% higher than that of the control "Fengyou 737", with erucic acid content of 0.31%, glucosinolate content of 27.04 μmol/g and oil content of 48.6%. It has performed well in the demonstration in Yancheng, Nanjing, Jiangsu, Chuzhou, Wangjiang, Anhui, Tianmen, Jingmen, Hubei and other places, and has been unanimously affirmed by local authorities, dealers and large farmers, so that the seeds used for demonstration in the second year are in short supply, and even the seedlings in the seedbed of the demonstration field were dug up by nearby villagers overnight.
Shaanxi Hongyuan Seed Industry Co., Ltd. is one of the top ten rapeseed enterprises in mainland China, with 18 varieties of high yield and high resistance, high oil quality, early maturity dwarf, cold and drought resistance, with an annual seed production area of 6,000 acres, more than 500,000 kilograms of rapeseed production and marketing, and the promotion area covers 15 provinces and regions in the winter rape area of the Yangtze River and Huanghuai River Basin and the spring rape area in the north. According to Zhang Yazhou, marketing director of Shaanxi Hongyuan Seed Industry Co., Ltd., from 2021, Hongyuan Company has arranged multi-point tests in the Yangtze River Basin, which fully verified the excellent characteristics and high yield advantages of the new herbicide-resistant variety "Hongyou 789".
"The times are the people who produce the papers, we and the Jiangsu Academy of Agricultural Sciences are the respondents, and the majority of rape growers are the readers. Shaanxi Provincial Hybrid Rapeseed Research Center and Yangling Seed Industry Innovation Center to build a science and enterprise docking platform, industry-university-research, scientific research and industrial integration, especially the 6th National (Yangling) Rapeseed Science and Technology Conference is coming, 'Hongyou 789' will be signed at the Science and Technology Conference to formally transfer Shaanxi Hongyuan Seed Industry Co., Ltd. We are full of confidence in the promotion potential of this variety, and will strive to build the revolutionary variety 'Hongyou 789' into one of the main varieties in the Yangtze River Basin, so as to help production and benefit users." Looking forward to the future, Guan Hanyu, general manager of Shaanxi Hongyuan Seed Industry Co., Ltd., is full of pride.
Yan Yutao, reporter of Agricultural Science and Technology News, China Agricultural Science News Network
Editor: Yu Tingting