"The advantage of Jiadi No. 1 is probably the taste and yield!" Qi Zheng said to Chen Jianzhang in Jiagu's "rice breeding base" in Qiong Province. Look at 'Mao's line, Chinese, and net

The tropical agricultural resources of Qiong Province are very abundant, and because of the unique "light, temperature and water" resources, agricultural varieties in the southern breeding base of Qiong Province through the addition of generations, the breeding cycle can be shortened by one-half, about seventy percent of the new crop varieties bred in the country are cultivated by the southern breeding base, which is praised as "breeding paradise" by scientific researchers.

Since two years ago, Chen Jianzhang suggested that Jiagu also go to Qiong Province to carry out breeding work, and the main result is "Jiadi No. 1" - a conventional high-quality indica rice variety, which is the main rice variety promoted by Jiagu this time.

Different from the spiritual plant of Xianming rice, which needs the "care" of the spirit array for the whole process of growth, "Jia Indica No. 1" can be promoted and planted in various places.

This time, Qi Zheng only arranged the "Green Bamboo Bailing Array" in the breeding base to optimize the quality of breeding, but it did not hinder the large-scale promotion of the improved varieties launched in the breeding base.

In the final analysis, "Jia Indica No. 1" is just a "mortal species", and breaking away from the spirit array has little impact on it. However, this is also the variety that Jiagu needs - varieties that cannot be promoted on a large scale, such as Xianming rice, can only occupy a corner of the land after all, and cannot affect the overall situation.

As for Qi Zheng's evaluation, Chen Jianzhang said that he was not convinced, "No, although 'Jia Indica No. 1' cannot be compared with Xianming rice in terms of quality, it is definitely excellent compared with conventional varieties." Besides, the other traits aren't bad, are they?"

Strictly speaking, "Jiagu No. 1" is not exactly a variety cultivated by Jiagu itself, but is the result of further improvement of Jiagu Laboratory in cooperation with other experimental bases in Qiong Province among its excellent rice varieties.

However, as Chen Jianzhang said, the performance of "Jia Indica No. 1" is still not bad.

"Jia Indica No. 1" has a full growth period of 130 days, compact plant type, strong growth potential, strong tillering ability, light green leaves, good group uniformity, good lodging resistance, good color change at maturity stage, excellent rice quality, and an average yield of 520 kg per mu in the production test. See. Wool, Chinese net

"Jia Indica No. 1" is an early-maturing indica rice variety, which is suitable for early and late rice planting in the mild rice blast areas in southern China.

"Of course, there are also shortcomings!" Chen Jianzhang also admitted.

The biggest disadvantage of "Jia Indica No. 1" is that the comprehensive index of rice blast resistance is only 5, that is, the disease resistance is relatively weak, and the low temperature resistance is only medium.

In this regard, Chen Jianzhang said that he did not panic, "The next improvement of Jia Indica No. 1 will depend on wild rice." ”

The cultivation of rice varieties is actually a very interesting process of "domestication".

The genome of rice is the smallest among cereal crops, so it is very easy to perform genetic manipulations such as hybridization and transformation.

The evolution of rice is inseparable from genetic domestication, and it is precisely because of genetic domestication that wild rice that does not conform to our "aesthetics" can be domesticated into high-quality cultivated rice that is "loved by everyone".

In the case of the "evolutionary marker" of rice, walking upright is a decisive step in the transition from ape to man, and the same is true of rice.

In everyone's eyes, rice plants grow upright.

But many people don't know that ordinary wild rice, just like Qiong Province, actually grows prostrately. These wild rice are very short and have a lot of tillers, and most importantly, the angle of tillers is very large, which tends to cause low photosynthetic use efficiency and thus reduce yields.

In addition to the low yield that does not conform to our current "aesthetics", creeping rice is more difficult to harvest, so humans will slowly domesticate them into ordinary cultivated rice that grows upright and has a straight plant, which is also the most direct sign of rice domestication.

Generations of rice, through human domestication, can show some of the "beautiful traits" we need, such as increased yield, easy harvesting, lodging resistance, and so on.

These traits of "Jia Indica No. 1" are quite "beautiful".

But scientists like Chen Jianzhang still have to work hard to study the "dwarf and poor" wild rice.

This is because domestication actually results in the loss of a large number of good genes – for any kind of crop.

Take rice as an example, since wild rice can survive tenaciously in a certain environment and become a veritable "rice strong", it must contain a large number of excellent genes for disease resistance and stress resistance.

However, domesticated rice, which is overly yield-oriented, has lacked excellent genes for disease resistance.

Now Chen Jianzhang wants to have both disease-resistant and high-yield rice, and he can only try to find the answer from the wild rice germplasm resources - these wild rice contains a lot of excellent genes, they are like a huge treasure trove, from which we can find the genes that human beings need, without affecting the yield, enhance the disease resistance and stress resistance of domesticated rice.

The Spirit Array can speed up this process, but it is not decisive.

Therefore, Qi Zheng still recognized Chen Jianzhang's breeding work, and he apologized for his pickiness: "Your laboratory has actually done a good job, but I am too picky." ”

Chen Jianzhang waved his hand and said that he didn't care: "Isn't the significance of our breeding research reflected here? The evolution of rice is non-stop. The domestication of our human beings is actually a pair of tangible hands, while the domestication of nature is an invisible hand, and the trend of the final evolution of rice will also be a new balance that meets the needs of human beings and adapts to the environment. ”

Qi Zheng nodded silently, this is destined to be a long-term journey that cannot be stopped.

Because rice also loves "retro" - if you pay close attention to the field, you will find that in the very neat and consistent rice, there will suddenly emerge so many "maverick" rice plants with different appearances. These rice plants that pop up out of nowhere are called "ghost rice".

"Ghost rice" has a very tenacious vitality like a weed, they are more suitable for the local environment, and they are also very close to the traits of wild rice, and there is a great tendency to return to their ancestors. This is the phenomenon of "de-domestication" of rice.

The domestication of man and the domestication of nature are always going back and forth!

And it is these breeding scientists who have worked silently to forge greatness in the tug-of-war with the invisible hand of nature! For example, Mr. Yuan, even at the age of eighty or ninety, still faces the land and sows dreams.

......

"Although the hybrid rice cultivated by scientists represented by Mr. Yuan has a high yield per mu, which solves the problem of filling the stomach of our people, the composition of hybrid rice has changed due to multi-generation breeding, which has also affected the taste to a certain extent, and is not as good as some other purebred rice. ”

"In the past, most of the focus of crop research was on how to breed more high-yielding varieties to produce more food to feed the people," Qi said. ”

"However, with the continuous development of the economy, consumption upgrading is the general trend, which puts forward higher requirements for the improvement of grain varieties and the increase of added value. ”

"Jiagu is definitely going to follow this trend. Although Jia Indica No. 1 has shortcomings, it is quite in line with this trend. The goal of the laboratory is to continue to breed Jiaji No. 2 and No. 3 with better taste and higher added value...... Our company is called Kaya, and if one day you develop a new balance of rice varieties that meet human needs and adapt to the environment, I would recommend the name 'Kaya No. 1'......"