Lao He is one of the founders of the Rongcheng Botanical Garden, but he is too old, nearly eighty, and he is also Jiang Zhongzheng's patient, so he was fooled in, and he is naturally no stranger to rice.

The topic of hybrid rice has been openly studied decades ago, and the method is not difficult, but the difficulty is only the process.

At this time, he explained aloud: "Male sterile lines, maintainer lines and restorer lines are the three basic foundations of hybrid rice. Rice is a dioecious plant, self-pollination and propagation, there is a very small probability of congenital hybrid rice in rice, this is because the pollen of the male on the same rice plant is aborted, but the female flower development is normal, and the self-pollination is not strong enough, at this time, if there are male pollen on other rice beads floating over to pollinate the abortion of the male flower, so that there is a hybridization, this natural hybrid rice plant grows taller, thicker, more hanging ears, full of grains, and looks like a flock of chickens from a distance, At that time, Mr. Yuan discovered a natural hybrid rice plant, which caused the idea of studying hybrid rice, but it took nearly four years to confirm this, and then six more strains were found, and two years of experiments were carried out, which first proposed the concept of "male sterile line"! In the early days of the founding of the People's Republic of China, many people in our country were hungry, and there were many people who were so hungry that they couldn't stand it and ate the soil, called "Guanyin soil", they were full of food, but they also ate the soil alive and ate people to death. ”

Zhang Heng nodded, he naturally knew about eating Guanyin soil, and there were also rumors in the village that his grandfather had eaten insects, grasshoppers, bamboo shoot insects, and even some families ate cockroaches. The emergence of hybrid rice is absolutely historical, because the food crisis was solved.

Lao He cleaned up his mood. He continued, "The so-called male sterile line. It refers to the abortion of this congenital male flower, unable to pollinate the female flowers of the same plant, but at this time to fight for speed, to find out this seedling before flowering, otherwise once after natural pollination, it will destroy the law of male sterility, Yuan old man used the six sterile rice plants found at that time for artificial pollination, and obtained hundreds of valuable hybrid rice seeds, but the problem appeared again. There is only a 30 percent chance that the second generation of these seeds will have sterile seedlings, which means that only 30 percent of the hybrid rice in a field will appear, and the remaining 70 percent will revert to self-pollination of the same plant, and the yield is not as good as the previous ordinary rice.

The old man and his apprentices have used more than 1,000 rice varieties and more than 3,000 hybrid combination breeding experiments in two seasons every year, but still no sterile lines have been cultivated with 100% sterility and sterility.

Among the three lines required for hybrid rice, the male sterile line is the most important. Called "paternal", without the paternal line, there is no way to breed a successful hybrid seed, and at least 90% sterility heritability is considered successful. in order to popularize and benefit all people.

Four years later, in 1970, the old man had spent a full decade on rice. During this period, he experienced heavy injuries, such as the laboratory was smashed and damaged. Earthquakes and other difficulties, hybrid rice has not yet succeeded. This caused a lot of skepticism, but at this time the dear Zhou. Total. Li stood up and expressed his support for the research of hybrid rice, and finally let the old man persevere, constantly experimenting, reflecting, and innovating, and finally woke up to the fact that he must jump out of his mind and look for primitive wild varieties. Finally, in November of this year, a male flower abortion plant was found in the ordinary wild rice community of Hi Nan Island, and it was found that it had the ability to maintain the wild sterile plant with square dwarf and Jingyin 66 varieties, which opened a breakthrough for the cultivation of rice sterile lines and the subsequent "three lines" matching, and brought a new turning point to the research of hybrid rice.

This precious wild primitive rice plant was named "Defeated Field", and it was because of this unique rice seedling that it was possible to make a hybrid rice interview, which is theoretically similar to hitting Newton's apple, and is a treasure for everyone in the world.

The "paternal ancestor" of male sterility was obtained, and the "maintenance line" was tested by using the seed, that is, the seeds cultivated by pollinating the wild with a rice variety were experimented with, which was equivalent to having an inexhaustible sterile line.

The seeds themselves represent "hybrid rice", and at this time it can be said that hybrid rice has been successful, these seeds have the characteristics of male sterility, and the yield of rice produced is quite impressive, and the increased yield can solve the food crisis.

But there is a problem, although a large number of wild seeds are obtained, but the male sterile line needs to be pollinated manually, which if it is promoted to let the people pollinate each seedling, the waste of manpower and material resources will outweigh the loss.

Three years later, a "restorer variety" specially tailored for sterile lines appeared, and the seeds obtained by crossing this restorer line of rice and sterile lines returned to the characteristics of self-pollination of the same plant, that is, the vitality of male pollen was revived, while maintaining the advantage of wild hybridization.

This is the hybrid rice generation seed used now, first of all, the male sterile plant is needed as the "parent species", and then through the "maintenance line" to get a large number of parent species, in the use of the recovery line as the "mother species", when the self-pollination ability of the parent species is restored, so that the three lines are connected, and the epoch-making hybrid rice generation is obtained, although the genetic characteristics of the second generation are messed up again, but it has become simple to get a generation of seeds, and a generation of rice seeds of about three catties can meet the seedling needs of a family of five.

In 1975, in the winter of this year, tens of thousands of seed production troops gathered in Hi Nan, and launched a large-scale southern multiplication of seed production tactics, and the hybrid rice seed production area reached 33,000 mu.

In 1976, hybrid rice was green all over China. 2.08 million mu of hybrid rice has been popularized throughout the country, and the output of rice has increased by a large margin after the harvest, and China's grain output has achieved a great leap. The old man's more than ten years of hard work were finally not in vain. ”

Lao He's explanation was quite detailed and easy to understand, and Zhang Heng finally figured out what hybrid rice meant, and said loudly: "Old He, you mean to use this kind of tiger tooth rice as a parent breed for hybridization." Controlling the parent seed is equivalent to monopolizing the source, and the seed will always be in our hands in the future. But I don't think it's safe, after a large number of Huya hybrid varieties are promoted. There will always be a certain probability of congenital sterility of male flowers, as long as there is a plant that is obtained by people who know how to get it, through research, to find the corresponding maintenance line and recovery line, that is not equivalent to copying the tiger tooth hybrid seed? ”

"Wang, your thinking really admires the old man, this is indeed the truth, and there is no need to be so troublesome." After a pause, Lao He said again, "The three-line hybridization I just mentioned is the most primitive. Now Mr. Yuan has conquered the two-line hybrid, the two-line hybrid rice is cultivated using light and temperature sensitive sterile line rice as the basic material, the light and temperature sensitive sterile line rice is very magical, and his fertility is with the change of light and temperature to achieve the goal of one line and two uses. Specifically, this kind of rice shows male sterility in summer, long sunshine and high temperature, and all normal varieties can produce hybrid seeds with him, and this seed is the seed of two-line hybrid rice. In autumn, short days, and low temperatures, it becomes normal rice. Reproduce yourself yourself, that is, inoculate yourself. This kind of hybrid rice is called two-line hybrid rice because it only has a sterile line (female parent) and a restorer line (paternal parent), and does not need a maintainer line (intermediate). The biggest advantage of the two lines of rice is that there is free love between the father and the mother. Until the one who is most satisfied with oneself in the photo, and the three-line rice must go through (maintain the line), that is, the matchmaker, and the parents can be in charge of the combination. Regardless of whether the varieties of both parties are good or not, the quality of the marriage of the two-line rice that is freely married is better than that of the three-line rice of the arranged marriage. Better quality, higher yield. The two lines are much stronger than the three lines. It has been promoted in a certain area, and it has also provided a food security foundation for our country, which continues to grow in population!

The development direction of hybrid rice is to go from three lines to two lines and finally to one line. At present, the highest yield of rice is maintained by our country, and it can reach 1,000 kilograms per mu, and more than 800 kilograms can be regarded as super rice, and the harvest of ordinary three-line hybrid rice per mu is about 500 kilograms, but it is also related to the regional environment, planting, management, etc., such as the backward planting technology in rural areas in Shuni, and there is only three or four hundred kilograms of harvest per mu.

Wang, the old man wants to use the residual life span to study rice, hoping to use the life time extended by the divine soil to break through a line of hybridization, if there is a line of hybridization, then all the harvested rice is seeds, hybrid rice has returned to its origin, maintaining the dominant genes of all hybrid rice, evolving into asexual embryonic reproduction, there is no distinction between male and female, every grain of rice is the same copy, all the advantages of constant hybrid rice, can be repeated from generation to generation, this is a once and for all way! ”

Lao He's words made Zhang Heng frown, pondered for a moment, and asked rhetorically: "What is the current yield of one mu of hybrid rice planted by the Jiang tribe?" ”

Lao He explained: "Each mu is only about 500 kilograms, this is because of the lack of chemical fertilizers, but also by a part of the insect pests, lack of pesticides to kill insects, if these two points are solved, coupled with more systematic management, it should be able to reach more than 800 catties, which is equivalent to using the seeds of the three lines to grow the yield of two lines of super rice, the environment of the divine land is much better than the earth." ”

Of course, this yield is calculated as the weight of the millet, and it will be reduced a little after the husk is shed, but although the husk of the millet cannot be eaten, it can be used to raise livestock, and this bit of fur is automatically ignored.

"The technique of crossing between the two lines is no problem for you, all that's missing is a specific lighting environment, right?" Zhang Heng asked again.

After Lao He nodded definitely, Zhang Heng pondered in his heart that the two-line hybrid is also super rice, but because of the requirements of the light environment, it is impossible to promote it in all places even on the earth, and there are restrictions after all, while the three-line hybrid is a mature product, and it has been planted all over the country for many years. As for the different hybrid varieties, the environment is different, and the quality of the rice is not the same, this is not the point, just a side branch!

The point is that now Huya rice is just seeds, a total of about 500 grains, is it too early to talk about these technical characteristics? Besides, he doesn't have an intuitive understanding of Huya rice, and he has neither planted nor eaten it, isn't this equivalent to empty talk?

"He Lao, don't worry, wait until the tiger tooth rice is planted, even if you want to breed hybrid varieties, you have to find congenital tiger tooth male sterile seedlings first, this luck component is quite large, it is almost impossible to succeed next year, and I want to see the most primitive yield and rice quality of tiger tooth rice." Zhang Heng said loudly, although a grain of rice can grow several branches, but there are only five hundred seeds in total, and the probability of sterile seedlings is too small.

He Changqing also knew that he was too anxious, which was also because he was too excited, and replied: "Wang, what you say is reasonable, I will go to the Jiang tribe to start preparing the experimental field, and after the spring begins, I will ask Wang to arrange manpower to build more farmland." ”

"Now?" Zhang Heng pointed to the goose feather snow outside, what kind of farmland is this ice and snow.

"yes, I can't wait a moment!" Lao He insisted.

In the end, there was no way, Zhang Heng couldn't resist the old man's enthusiasm, and arranged for the old man to be sent back to the Jiang tribe in the chariot, as for the seeds, he also took them away, the swamp is still there, even if these seeds fail, he can also get new tiger tooth seeds next year, and he plans to send someone to check at the beginning of spring to find wild tiger tooth seedlings.

Rice seedlings, also known as "seedlings" in Shunei, smiled, Zhang Heng plans to spread this title to the original space, so that it will sound more kind, seedlings, seedlings...... Let's hope Huya Rice won't disappoint him!

PS: There are a lot of references in this chapter, and it took me a long time to figure it out, and there are already a few hundred more free words! Not deliberately injected with water, but for the sake of the plot! (To be continued.) )