According to the official website of China Agricultural University, recently, the "Pinduoduo-China Agricultural University Research Fund" funded projects have made important progress.
On June 12, the internationally renowned academic journal Nature published a collaborative research paper titled "Smart Canopy Promotes Corn Dense Planting and Yield Increase" by Tian Feng's research group in the College of Agronomy of China Agricultural University and Li Jigang's research group in the College of Biology. This study identified the "smart plant type" gene LAC1 in maize for the first time, revealing the molecular mechanism of dynamic regulation of LAC1 by light signals to promote the adaptation of maize to dense planting, and providing a powerful tool for rapid directional modification of commercial varieties, synergistic improvement of multiple traits, and de novo domestication of wild species.
Previously, on April 23, Wei Yulei of China Agricultural University and the team of Yu Leqian and Guo Jingtao of the Institute of Zoology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences jointly published a blockbuster article "3D Construction of an Early Human Embryonic Development Galtome Model" in another international authoritative academic journal "Cell", revealing for the first time that the human embryo tail signal source regulates gastrulation motility, opening a new door for exploring the development process of human very early embryos.
On May 9 last year, Pinduoduo donated 100 million yuan to China Agricultural University to set up the "Pinduoduo-China Agricultural University Research Fund" to support China Agricultural University to focus on the major strategic needs of the country, based on the frontier of science and technology in the global agricultural field, and actively explore in strengthening basic research and tackling key core technologies in agriculture.
▲On May 9, 2023, the donation site of "Pinduoduo-China Agricultural University Research Fund". Photo by Jiang Pingping▕
In addition to the above papers, several other articles have been published in well-known academic journals such as "The Plant Cell", "Cell Metabolism", and "Nature Communications", covering basic biology, cytology, plant biotechnology, food science, etc.
"Cell" and "Nature" have successively published the results of funded projects
"Birth, marriage, and death are not the most important moments in your life, but gastrulation is." Lewis Wolpert, a pioneer of developmental biology, once said ·.
Gastrulation occurs at the very early stage of embryonic development, and previous studies have shown that early human miscarriage, multiple congenital genetic defects, and pregnancy diseases are mostly associated with gastrulation abnormalities. Therefore, the analysis of gastrulation motility has far-reaching clinical significance for exploring life processes, understanding miscarriage caused by abnormal early embryonic development, and intervening in the development of fetal diseases.
The results released by the team of China Agricultural University and the Chinese Academy of Sciences analyzed the human embryo in the CS8 period of the pre-human embryonic stage for the first time, and obtained 62 cross-sections and a total of 38,562 data points of the embryo through spatial sequencing. This provides important information for understanding early human embryonic development and related diseases, and also lays a scientific foundation for improving adverse pregnancy outcomes, and also means that the gastrulation period, the "black box" of the origin of human life, has the opportunity to be gradually opened.
▲The official website of the journal "Cell" released the results of "3D Construction of Galtulation Model of Early Human Embryonic Development".
In addition to basic research in the field of life sciences, there are also a number of key technologies aimed at agricultural "bottlenecks" in the research fund projects.
Corn is the world's largest food crop, and increasing planting density is one of the key means to continuously increase corn yields. Relevant data show that the corn planting density in United States generally exceeds 6000 plants/mu, while the average corn planting density in China is 4000 plants/mu.
For the first time, the team from China Agricultural University identified the "smart plant type" gene LAC1 in maize, revealed the molecular mechanism of dynamic regulation of this gene by light signal to promote the adaptation of maize to dense planting, and established a haploid inducible line genetic transformation system, which provides a powerful tool for rapid directional modification of commercial varieties, synergistic improvement of multiple traits, and de novo domestication of wild varieties. In recognition of the importance of the research results, in early June, the journal Nature published the results online in the "article accelerated preview" mode.
▲ "Nature" magazine published a blockbuster article online "Smart Canopy Promotes Corn Dense Planting and Yield Increase".
Including the above research, up to now, the "Pinduoduo-China Agricultural University Research Fund" funded project has produced a number of high-quality and influential scientific research results, such as revealing the mechanism of action of postbiotics in human and animal nutrition and health, analyzing the mechanism related to the regulation of cucumber lateral branch elongation, discovering the endoplasmic reticulum autophagy of rice cells involved in the initiation of disease resistance, and discovering a new mechanism of anti-plague sensing receptor recognition.
Contribute to the creation of a free, open and collaborative research environment
Since its establishment, the "Pinduoduo-China Agricultural University Research Fund" has funded two phases of projects in 2023, with a total of 50 projects under research, involving agricultural biological breeding, veterinary public health, food security, food safety, ecological security, biosecurity and agriculture-related frontier intersection. Among them, a number of research results on the mechanism of rice disease resistance and the β-glucosidase conferred resistance to maize diseases and insect pests have been published in internationally renowned journals. The first phase of funding in 2024 is still in the process of review, and more than 100 project applications have been received so far.
It is reported that the "Pinduoduo-China Agricultural University Research Fund" is divided into two types of projects for collection, selection and funding. Class A projects mainly aim at the field of agricultural "stuck neck" technology, and support scientific research teams to tackle key core technologies in agriculture. From the perspective of the funded projects, most of the hosts of such projects are academician-level scientists with strategic scientist thinking, who gather in their own fields or interdisciplinary teams to carry out original and disruptive technical research, and prospectively explore and solve scientific problems in the field of agriculture. Category B projects mainly support young talents to aim at the world's frontiers of agricultural science and technology and conduct original basic research. At present, the project leaders who have been funded are not only "national talents", but also young scientists and outstanding postdoctoral fellows introduced from top universities at home and abroad.
Sun Qixin, president of China Agricultural University, previously said that China Agricultural University and Pinduoduo know each other because of agriculture and cooperation, and Pinduoduo's donation focuses on scientific and technological innovation, which fully reflects its support for agricultural development as a national enterprise, its attention to agricultural science and technology, and its attention to agricultural education.
It is reported that the project funded by the "Pinduoduo-China Agricultural University Research Fund" has a high degree of flexibility in the use of funds, as long as it meets the actual needs of scientific research and the objective laws of research, and conforms to relevant financial regulations, the project leader has full right to dispose of resources.
China Agricultural University said that with the increasing number of funded projects, the fund will not only provide scientists with solid scientific research guarantees, but also build an interdisciplinary communication platform, create a free, open and cooperative scientific research environment for scientists, and help build a strong country in science and technology, agriculture and talents.
"We congratulate China Agricultural University on its achievements in multiple scientific research fields, and in the future, Pinduoduo will continue to support basic research and scientific research on agricultural 'neck' technology, and promote the birth of high-level scientific research achievements with international influence." Zhu Zheng, chief development officer of Pinduoduo, said.
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