Hunan Hybrid Rice Research Center is collaborating with industry to work on genetic engineering part of hybrid rice, said YUAN Longping, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering. YUAN wishes to see a yield of 900kg/mu(1mu=0.0667 ha.) produced from the phase-III experiment for super hybrid rice, using the combined strength of both technology and funding.
YUAN said that breakthroughs in hybrid rice breeding have to count on innovations in both strain quality and technology. In the past three decades, conventional breeding potentials have been tapped up to a fullest possible extent. In this context, phase-III hybrid rice has to make through using genetic technology. He added that his collaboration with Beijing Huada Genetic Center has produced the first draft sequence of the rice genome (Oryza sativa L. ssp. Indica). He and his research team are currently working on the functional genome of rice, in an attempt to separate out major genes having hybrid strength and economic values, and apply genetic modification technology in breeding phase-III hybrid rice strains. So far, LONG and his team has landed progresses in breeding pest and disease resistant GM rice strains. |
