The Germplasm Innovation Center of the Western (Chongqing) Science City was launched

Seed is the "chip" of agriculture, germplasm innovation is a major national strategy. The germplasm Innovation Center of the Western (Chongqing) Science City was officially launched on January 11. The center will focus on important characteristic species in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River and strive to build an international leading germplasm innovation center for animals and plants.
It is understood that the center focuses on the important characteristic species in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River, and promotes the construction of germplasm science facilities in an orderly way according to the principle of "overall planning, batch by batch". Southwest University has broken the original organizational model of colleges and disciplines, built a new era scientific and technological innovation system, and made every effort to promote the construction of a large science center. The first demonstration species of silkworm, poplar and artemisia annua have been studied. Recently, the Germplasm Innovation Center was listed by the Department of Seed Industry Management of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs as one of the five specialized platforms for national support service breeding innovation.
"At present, we have been the first in the world to establish the efficient knockout technology of poplar endogenous genes, and have successfully created 1200 poplar mutant materials and obtained improved varieties." Luo Keming, head of the poplar creation team at the Germplasm Development Center of West China (Chongqing) Science City, dean of the College of Life Science of Southwest University and doctoral supervisor, said that through gene creation technology, they will form a large-scale and precise poplar genome editing platform and molecular breeding system, which can not only obtain improved varieties with faster growth and stronger stress resistance. And it can shorten the time of seedling cultivation from more than 30 years in the traditional way to less than 5 years.
In the next five years, the center will strive to complete the creation of the whole genome of bombyx mori, creating more than 10,000 new materials. To build the world's largest library of poplar gene editing mutants, and create gene editing genetic materials with breeding value; The germplasm bank of Artemisia annua was constructed, and the mutant bank and terpene biosynthetic element bank covering the important economic characters of Artemisia annua were constructed. In the later stage, studies on the creation of citrus, rice, rape, cotton, potato, sweet potato, tilapia, tea tree, coptis chinensis and other species will be carried out. Professor Xia Qingyou, chief scientist of the Germplasm Science Center, said, "Through large-scale intelligent germplasm development, we will be able to obtain a steady stream of new materials, which can be directly or indirectly applied to breeding. In the future, large-scale identification, screening and breed will be conducted according to the development direction and model of the industry. At the same time, the materials created are of great scientific value as they provide new opportunities for basic research."
Zhang Weiguo, President of Southwest University, said that the Science Center will invite domestic and foreign universities, research institutes and seed industry enterprises to jointly tackle key problems and truly build a national and even global germplasm innovation platform, contributing to the implementation of seed industry revitalization action, support and guarantee of national food security.
Zuo Yongxiang, deputy secretary of the Party Working Committee and director of the Management Committee of Chongqing High-tech Zone, and Deputy secretary of the Party Working Committee and director of the Management Committee of the West (Chongqing) Science City, said that as the main platform of scientific and technological innovation of Chongqing, the West (Chongqing) Science City adheres to the life technology as the main direction of scientific and technological innovation, biomedicine as the leading industry of key cultivation, and high-level construction of "life island". We will accelerate the development of a hub for life sciences and a new plateau for the biological industry.