Shandong Agricultural University research team successfully cloned the national treasure wheat gene
source: the author of Qilu: Han Yanyan
the research team led by Professor Fu Lin of Shandong Agricultural University in Taigu nuclear sterile wheat A great breakthrough was made in the study. The gene of Taigu nuclear sterile was cloned successfully and its mechanism was discussed in order to create the conditions for the future hybrid seed production of wheat and other crops. In April 28th, the international famous academic journal "Nature Communications" published their research results with the "Wheat Ms2 encodes for an orphan protein that confers" (Wheat Ms2 encodes for an orphan protein that confers), with the rare protein encoded by the wheat Ms2 gene.
common wheat is a self pollination plant. Due to the narrow genetic basis, the study of high yield cross breeding is very difficult. Finding the genetic resources of male sterility is the primary problem to overcome this difficulty. In 1972, Gao Zhongli, an agricultural technician in Taigu County of Shanxi Province, discovered a natural male sterile wheat in the field. This kind of wheat has the habit of pollination and can be used for wheat recurrent selection breeding. This discovery is highly valued by scientists and is considered as a national treasure - class germplasm. In 1979, Dr. Deng Jingyang of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences named the wheat "Taigu nuclear sterile wheat" and named its sterile gene Ta1 (International gene code Ms2). In 1981, the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences organized a large collaboration team of 23 provinces and 44 units nationwide to carry out the research on the utilization of Taigu nuclear sterile wheat. By 1994, more than 20 provinces with strong adaptability, high yield and good quality were bred by the Taigu nuclear sterile system, and the total area was about 70000000 mu. In the late 90s of last century, Liu Binghua, a researcher at the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, created a "dwarf wheat", which is a Taigu sterile line closely linked to dwarf and sterile lines. The Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences has also organized 72 breeding units to tackle the technology of dwarf wheat breeding. As of 2009, there were 210 wheat picking groups in the whole country, 42 varieties were bred, and 185 million acres were promoted to increase grain production by 5 billion 600 million kg. The Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences has won the first prize of national science and technology progress in 2010 with the lead in the establishment and application of dwarf wheat and its efficient breeding methods.
Ms2 is a national treasure gene. The gene is used in Heterosis Research and hybrid seed production through biotechnology, and it will have a great influence on the breeding of self pollinated crops, such as wheat. To ensure our country's independent intellectual property rights of the gene, the state has poured a lot of manpower and material resources to clone the Ms2 gene. Although the genome of the wheat is huge and the gene is complex, the cloning of Ms2 gene is very difficult, but the researchers have carried on a hard work for several decades. In 2000, the Sun Lanzhen team of Shandong Agricultural University carried out the study of genetic markers of the Ms2 gene under the support of the National Natural Science Fund. In 2010, Dorian team began to clone the Ms2 gene by using the technique of graphic cloning, and was funded by the national natural fund in 2014. The key to success of map cloning in
wheat depends on whether or not the physical map of the target gene is located. To this end, Fu Daolin team invested in the construction of the genome library of "dwarf Lu Mai 15", which includes about 706 thousand McAbs, covering about 5 times the genome of common wheat, which is the present quality of common wheat genome artificial chromosome library in China. They also screened and obtained 8 positive clones from the specific markers of the Ms2 region, and successfully established the physical map of the Ms2 region, isolated the gene for the Taigu nuclear sterile Ms2, and verified the function of the gene by reverse genetics. The
Fu Daolin team researchers also found that the gene was only expressed in the meiotic anther tissue during meiosis, and its specific spatio-temporal expression pattern was regulated by a reverse transcriptional transposon (Taigu). Evolutionary analysis shows that the Ms2 gene is a unique product of the wheat family, and only occurs in some wheat species such as Aegilops tauschii and common wheat. Genetic transformation experiments showed that Ms2 could not only cause male sterility in wheat, but also cause male sterility phenotype in barley and Brachypoidum. This indicates that Ms2 not only plays an important role in wheat breeding or production, but also has great significance in other crop breeding.
Taigu genic male sterile wheat is a "treasure class" germplasm resource, and Taigu genic male sterility gene is also a national treasure gene. According to reports, in order to ensure China's independent intellectual property rights, Shandong Agricultural University has applied for international and domestic patents for the application of the gene and its promoter.
Shandong Agricultural University has been the main participant in the national cooperation of Taigu nuclear sterile wheat. During the period of "75" and "85", Professor Sun Lanzhen, a breeding expert, led the team to carry out the auxiliary breeding of Taigu's nuclear sterility, and selected the winter wheat variety "Lu Mai 15" in 1990. The variety has accumulated over 6750 mu in Huang Huai wheat area, and won the two prize of national science and technology progress in 1995. Shandong Agricultural University, as the main member, also participated in the joint project of the short defeat wheat, and was awarded the first prize of the national scientific and technological progress in the year of 2010 as the sixth completion unit. In recent years, new varieties such as "Shannon 22", "Shannon 23" and "Shannon 24" were selected by Shandong Nongda with the use of Taigu nuclear sterile wheat, which were welcomed in production.
Fu Daolin told reporters, "it is the duty of our wheat breeding researchers to master the intellectual property of the national treasure wheat gene in the hands of Chinese people. We expect that the cloning and application of Taigu nuclear sterile wheat Ms2 gene will play an important role in improving the level of wheat breeding and enhancing the international competitiveness of seed industry in China.