Question

Mention any two applications of apomicts in hybrid seed industry.

Answer 1

Major new advances in agricultural science and technology announced this time include:

• Hybrid rice apomixis system used genome editing technology to establish a rice apomixis system that can permanently fix heterosis, successfully obtained cloned seeds of hybrid rice, and achieved a breakthrough in hybrid rice apomixis from scratch.

• Haploid induction-mediated gene editing technology accelerates the process of crop precision breeding. The relevant teams of the Institute of Biotechnology and the Institute of Crop Science have combined haploid sports species with gene editing technology to achieve targeted improvement of breeding materials within one year (two generations), greatly reducing the breeding cycle.

• Discovered plant selfish genes. The research on cloning of the selfish genes that hindered the utilization of rice heterosis, revealed the nature of non-Mendelian inheritance caused by selfish genetic factors in rice, and clarified the mechanism of selfish genes in maintaining genome stability and promoting species evolution.

• The "Excellent Potato Project" analyzes the genetic basis of potato inbreeding decline. The research team conducted in-depth research on harmful mutations that lead to self-regression in three potato diploid populations, which provided a theoretical basis for molecular design and breeding of diploid potato, and also analyzed the self-recession of other asexual crops. The mechanism provides a reference.

• In-depth interpretation of the molecular mechanism of peach domestication and improvement. Team constructed the largest database of peach multi-type mutation groups, clarified the molecular evolution mechanism of peach fruit size and flavor traits, and provided theoretical support for peach genome selection and breeding.