The word "re" is used in the title, which is a continuation of the exploratory article in the 2016 Journal of Wheat Crops (abandoning "cumbersome" and ensuring smooth and efficient growth and development - discussion on future wheat improvement models); The use of the word "chat" to weaken the formality of the text is not mature, and the views expressed are relatively messy, just throwing bricks and attracting jade; The term "burdensome" is borrowed from the genetic term "chain burden", which has a different meaning in this text.
I am grateful that in this era, science and technology are developing by leaps and bounds. "Looking up at the vastness of the universe and looking down at the prosperity of categories", the deep space and particles that people today have explored are difficult to imagine when the sage of books in the past "wandered into his arms". Biological breeding technology has also developed rapidly, crop yields have doubled continuously, and livestock and poultry growth has increased efficiency to meet our growing demand for "quantity and quality" of food. Wheat accompanied mankind from primitive civilization to agricultural civilization, and it is still our indispensable main food ration to this day.
Yuval Harari, a cutting-edge Israeli historian, said: It was not human beings who domesticated wheat, but wheat who domesticated human beings, and this domestication has unconsciously penetrated into the physiological structure and living habits of the human body. Whether you agree with it or not, at least human beings and wheat should be interdependent and change each other. In the future, dealing with various global problems such as climate warming must be inseparable from the power of scientific and technological progress. To adapt is to change, to change our partner – wheat.
Some time ago, some pictures of Shandong vegetable greenhouses from a satellite perspective were circulated on the Internet, which was very shocking. The combination of breed improvement and facility agriculture has brought about a huge increase in productivity. Under the protection of facility greenhouses and precision cultivation technology, the planted varieties can reduce the "cumbersome" traits because they do not need to worry about adverse changes in environmental conditions such as light, temperature, water and soil, and focus only on the rapid growth of traits that are needed by humans (the target traits of breeding improvement).
As for the "redundant" traits, they are defined here as traits that affect the smoothness and efficiency of crop growth and development, but can give crops the ability to survive and reproduce, such as ineffective tillering, time-consuming vernalization reactions, etc. All kinds of vegetables are available all year round, and I believe that many young people can no longer distinguish which ones are "seasonal vegetables", and will take it for granted that tomatoes are available in all seasons.
Shandong vegetable greenhouse from a satellite perspective
Wheat production is facing more and more adversities. Today, global warming is no longer predicted, and people are actually experiencing it. For our temperate monsoon climate zone, warming may lead to rapid warming in spring and shortening the suitable filling period of wheat. In addition, weather instability caused by climate warming has increased, and extreme weather has become more frequent. In order to strengthen the adaptability of varieties to stress, it is necessary to moderately increase the "cumbersome" traits, such as enhancing the lodging resistance of the stem (making the stem thick and tough, it takes more assimilation products) and moderately improving the photoperiod sensitivity (which can weaken the influence of temperature change on the growth and development rate, so that the flowering phenology period is relatively stable).
This year's early flowering and maturity of wheat is the result of warm spring, if the variety has a good photoperiod sensitivity, the flowering and ripening period is not so obviously affected by temperature), prolonged dormancy to improve panicle germination resistance, moderately enhance the winter nature of varieties (to avoid too fast development in winter and lead to spring freezing, but this is a dilemma, strong winter will lead to delayed development and easy to encounter high temperature in the later stage), etc. Variety improvement is a process of multi-trait trade-off and coordination, and the rapid pace of climate change has exceeded expectations, and variety improvement is facing great challenges.
Explore walking on two legs (increasing and decreasing the burden), shielding the risk of adversity with modern agricultural facilities and equipment like a horticultural crop, trying to remove more burden, and quickly getting straight to the point (filling and seeding). Unlike animal breeds (where all kinds of organs are basically completed), accelerated growth can increase efficiency, and the life cycle of wheat is not only a process of growth, but also a process of development. It is necessary to promote the research of developmental biology, apply biotechnology to explore and accelerate the development process of wheat, and greatly shorten the whole growth period.
There are many plants in the harsh environment, evolved the ability to grow rapidly and flower quickly, such as the desert plant "short-lived chrysanthemum", its seeds in the slightest rain, quickly sprout and grow, blossom and bear fruit, before the drought comes, hurriedly complete its life cycle, otherwise it will be "extinct". The famous "Zhancheng Rice" in the Song Dynasty, Baidu entry introduced "only more than 50 days from planting to harvesting". After a rain in late May, many grasses emerged, headed, flowered, and seeded, and I felt that these processes were completed in only a few days, and I was amazed at its strong survival adaptability.
The basic laws of life are interconnected, and the rapid development mechanism of these plants can be borrowed to shorten the life cycle of wheat. The development of life sciences and biotechnology will provide support for breeding and improvement to accelerate the development of wheat, remove the "burdens" that hinder the development process, breed new types of varieties that can complete the life cycle within a few weeks, shield adversity with modern agricultural facilities, and establish facility grain factories to produce multiple crops of wheat every year.
Short-lived chrysanthemum (online picture)
Climate change is alarming, and to ensure food security, exploratory research must be one step ahead. The massive use of fossil fuels has contributed to economic development and climate change, and the response will need to be rapidized by the life sciences. Rice, which is also a C3 plant, has much more heat tolerance than wheat, which should be available for wheat.
Today's level of science and technology and economy should be a breeze for the development of facility agriculture. Over the past 10 years or so, more than 1 billion mu of high-standard farmland has been built on the mainland, laying a solid foundation for ensuring food security. Only by replacing the responsibility of survival and reproduction guarantee for the "cumbersome" traits of crops can the adversity-free environment created by facility agriculture and relieve the worries of adversity disasters of crops, so as to make them a biological factory for grain cloning and completely solve the problems of food and clothing for human survival.
(Straw 2024.06.15 night)
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