2018 China Science Top Ten Progress Announced

The Basic Research Management Center of the Ministry of Science and Technology announced the "Top Ten Progress of Chinese Science in 2018", and successfully cloned 10 major scientific advances such as "Zhongzhong" and "Huahua" based on somatic cell nuclear transfer technology, and stood out from 30 candidate projects. 

The ten results were: the successful cloning of macaques based on somatic cell nuclear transfer technology, the creation of the first artificial single-chromosome eukaryotic cells, the discovery of depression and the rapid antidepressant mechanism of ketamine, and the development of intelligent DNA nanobots for tumor therapy. 

Measured the highest precision gravitational constant G value to date, directly detected the inflection of the electron cosmic ray spectrum near 1 TeV, revealed the atomic structure and magic number effect of hydrated ions, and created nanometers that can detect intracellular structural interactions. The millisecond-scale imaging technology, regulation of plant growth-metabolic balance to achieve sustainable agricultural development, and the history of human life in the Loess Plateau was pushed forward to 2.12 million years ago.

The awards program is as follows:

Regulate plant growth - metabolic balance to achieve sustainable agricultural development

Increasing crop productivity by increasing the amount of inorganic nitrogen fertilizer applied can ensure global food security, but it also exacerbates the damage to the ecological environment. Therefore, it is important to improve the efficiency of crop nitrogen use. This requires a deeper understanding of the synergistic regulation mechanisms such as plant growth and development, nitrogen uptake and utilization, and photosynthetic carbon fixation.

Studies by Fu Xiangdong, a research group and collaborator of the Institute of Genetics and Developmental Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, showed that the reverse balance regulation between rice growth regulator GRF4 and growth inhibitor DELLA confers stability between plant growth and carbon-nitrogen metabolism. State adjustment. GRF4 promotes and integrates plant nitrogen metabolism, photosynthesis, and growth, while DELLA inhibits these processes.

The high level of accumulation of DELLA protein, which is a typical feature of the “Green Revolution” variety, resulted in a semi-dwarf agronomic trait, but with a decrease in nitrogen use efficiency. By tilting the GRF4-DELLA balance to the increase in GRF4 abundance, it is possible to improve the nitrogen use efficiency of the "Green Revolution" variety and increase grain yield while maintaining the semi-dwarf traits.

Therefore, the coordinated regulation of plant growth and metabolism is a new breeding strategy for sustainable agriculture and food security in the future. The Nature Journal published a review article that the breeding strategy declared "a new green revolution is coming."