On September 13, President Xi Jinping signed a presidential decree awarding 15 people national medals and national honorary titles. Among them, 93-year-old academician Li Zhensheng was awarded the "Medal of the Republic".
"I went to the world from Yangling, and I can also make world-class achievements in Yangling!" In 2005, when Li Zhensheng gave a report at Northwest A&F University, he was full of enthusiasm to encourage teachers and students. In the land of Yangling, he worked hard for 31 years, "rooted" in the field of wheat breeding, and told the world with practical actions that "Chinese can feed themselves".
In 1987, some researchers from the genetics department of the Northwest Institute of Botany (the first from the left is Li Zhensheng)
First blue grain wheat
and new systems for chromosomal engineering breeding
In 1956, 25-year-old Li Zhensheng gave up his job in Beijing in order to actively respond to the country's call to support the great northwest, and came to Yangling, a little-known town, where everything in the story began.
When he first arrived in Yangling, he began his first bold scientific innovation - the use of wheat and long-spike wheat grass for distant hybridization.
In the 50s, no one in China engaged in distant hybridization, and there was no successful experience to learn from in this work.
The young Li Zhensheng believes that the cultivation of ordinary wheat by humans is formed by the natural hybridization of primitive wheat and wild grass twice, and then after 9,000 years of evolution, so it is theoretically feasible to carry out distant hybridization of wheat.
At that time, the wheat variety "Bimao No. 1", which was widely used in production, encountered a severe wheat stripe rust epidemic, resulting in a large-scale reduction in wheat yield.
"If the genes of the long-spike wheat grass can be transferred to wheat, won't the selected wheat be able to have both high and stable yields?" Li Zhensheng pondered. This bold idea came at the right time, and it also made him pay 20 years of hard work and sweat for it.
In the laboratory and in the experimental field, Li Zhensheng overcame one difficulty after another in the distant hybridization of wheat.
Wheat grass blooms two months later than wheat, and hybridization cannot be carried out if the flowering period is not met. Li Zhensheng led the members of the research group to plant electric poles and electric lamps for the breeding ground, and used light treatment to achieve flowering encounters.
Distant crossbreeding takes decades and is difficult for others to repeat. In this regard, Li Zhensheng introduced chromosome engineering technology into the field of wheat breeding, and created the blue-grain monomeric wheat system, the self-flowering and fruiting deficiency system and the deficiency backcross method, which bred a new rye heterogeneous line in only three and a half years, opening up a new way for chromosome engineering breeding.
This original achievement has earned Lee a wide international reputation. Sears, president of the Genetics Society of United States, and other well-known experts proposed that the "First International Symposium on Plant Chromosome Engineering" be held in Xi'an in 1986, in order to see Li Zhensheng's experimental field to see his results.
Li Zhensheng, as the chairman of the local organizing committee, stood in front of his colleagues in the world and presided over the academic symposium. Experts and scholars from 15 countries spoke highly of the scientific research achievements of this native farmer son: "Li Zhensheng is a scientist with strong imagination and innovation ability. ”
Creation of distant hybrids of wheat
Promote the record of 300 million acres
Li Zhensheng's persistent pursuit of science is still fresh in the memory of those who follow him.
"Back then, when Mr. Li and we were breeding in the official village of Yangling, we had to walk 15 miles every day. Along the way, Mr. Li saw wheat with pests and diseases, so he stopped to tell us the causes of pests and diseases and how to solve them. Li Zhang, a wheat breeding expert, a member of Academician Li Zhensheng's early research group, and a researcher at Northwest A&F University, recalled.
Chen Shuyang, a researcher at Northwest A&F University who has worked with Li Zhensheng for 31 years, recalled, "Whether it was observing and studying the offspring of hybrids in the experimental field, or reading materials and writing a plan summary in the office, he (Li Zhensheng) always didn't know how to get off work, and often asked his wife to call him in the office before going back to dinner." ”
In 1964, it rained for 40 consecutive days before the wheat matured, and then the weather suddenly cleared, and in one day, almost all the wheat was green and dry.
Among the more than 1,000 hybrid materials screened by Li Zhensheng's group, only one still maintains its golden color, which is a very rare material, which is the grandfather of "Xiaoyan 6" (Xiaoyan 55-6).
Li Zhensheng led the research team to seize this opportunity, and after two hybridizations, a new wheat variety with relatively lasting disease resistance, high yield, stable yield and high quality was bred - "Xiaoyan No. 6".
With the characteristics of strong light tolerance and hot dry air, "Xiaoyan No. 6" has been the backbone wheat variety in Shaanxi Province for 16 years, and has become the self-fertile wheat variety with the longest promotion time in the mainland, with a planting area of more than 500,000 mu. In 1985, with this variety, Li Zhensheng won the first prize of the National Invention Award.
As the backbone parent of wheat breeding, "Xiaoyan No. 6" has derived more than 50 wheat varieties, including more than 10 varieties in China, which have been promoted to more than 300 million mu and increased wheat yield by more than 15 billion catties. This set a precedent and record for the large-scale promotion of distant cross-breeding in production.
At the Boao Forum in 2005, Li Zhensheng used his research results to refute the article "Who Will Feed China" proposed by United States economist Lester · Brown 10 years ago, and told the world with practical actions that Chinese can feed themselves.
Interestingly, the Xiaoyan series bred by Li Zhensheng was named from No. 4. There is a story in this, when the new variety was bred out, it was just when Academician Zhao Hongzhang's "Fengchan No. 3" was widely promoted, in order to facilitate the memory of farmers, Li Zhensheng simply named the new variety "Xiaoyan No. 4", followed by "Xiaoyan No. 5" and "Xiaoyan No. 6" were also bred one after another.
In order to encourage the members of the research group to continue to climb the scientific peak of wheat distant hybridization, Li Zhensheng left "Xiaoyan No. 1" to future generations.
"If any of you breeds a variety that exceeds 1,000 catties, it will be called 'Xiaoyan No. 1'." Li Zhensheng said.
"Honor is first and foremost due to the collective"
"Honor should first be attributed to the collective, without the collective hard work, there would be no today's honor. The new wheat varieties of Xiaoyan No. 4, 5 and 6 were jointly completed by 10 comrades from the wheat breeding research group of the Northwest Institute of Botany, Yangling, Shaanxi. Li Zhensheng attaches great importance to the team's spirit of cooperation, and has repeatedly emphasized the importance of the spirit of scientific research teamwork in the report, which also allows people to see his good character of humility.
He returned to his alma mater to give a report and encouraged teachers and students to learn agriculture and love agriculture
Zhao Hongzhang is an old-timer in wheat breeding, and after Li Zhensheng arrived in Yangling, he often went to consult Mr. Zhao and exchanged experiences together, and the two became old friends. He also has a good personal relationship with the famous plant pathologist Li Zhenqi, and often asks about pest and disease control. After the cultivation of "Xiaoyan No. 6", experts and academicians in many fields came to visit. Academicians Cai Xu, Zhuang Qiaosheng, and Bao Wenkui have visited Li Zhensheng's experimental site more than once, and he has always humbly asked for advice.
"Li Zhensheng is an easy-going and amiable person, and the members of the research group always affectionately call him 'Lao Li'. Once, the villagers in my hometown came to Yangling to look for wheat seeds, and I asked 'Lao Li' for help, and he personally led the villagers to the production team, looked over one by one, answered the villagers' questions seriously, and let the villagers go home with satisfactory wheat seeds. Researcher Li Zhang recalled.
Li Zhensheng is also a frugal and thrifty person, he often said that work and life should be like Shandong people eating flatbread and rolling green onions, and pull down the green onions while eating the cakes, and save green onions.
"Xiaoyan No. 6" has produced significant social and economic benefits, and the province wants to give him hundreds of thousands of funds, but he doesn't ask for a penny. At that time, his research group only had a bicycle, and the unit was 15 miles away from the test base.
Someone persuaded him that he could use the money to buy a few bicycles to improve his office conditions. But Li Zhensheng replied: "Our results were made when there was no money, and the current conditions are not so bad, what do you want money for?" ”
In 2006, Academician Li Zhensheng won the highest national science and technology award
In 2006, Academician Li Zhensheng won the highest national science and technology award, and he donated all the 5 million yuan prize to the Institute of Genetics and Developmental Biology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences for scientific research and student funding.
China uses 9% of the world's arable land to feed nearly 20% of the world's population. Li Zhensheng, who has won major domestic scientific awards, has always kept a low profile: "The work I have done has only played a leading and leading role in the field of wheat breeding. ”
Shaanxi Daily: Wang Chenxi
Correspondent: Zhang Qing