Recently, Ministry of Education announced the results of Science Technology Achievement Award for Higher Institutions of China, 2018. As the first completion unit, HZAU got desirable results with a first and a second award.
Professor Xu Qiang’s team from College of Horticulture & Forestry Sciences of HZAU won the first-prize award in natural science for their achievements on “Genome of Sweet Citrus and Formation Mechanisms of Fruit Color and Quality”. This project was independently completed by the team who has constructed the first genome sequence map of citrus (Rutaceae) in the world, which provides a genetic framework for citrus genetic and breeding improvement, promotes basic research of Citrus into genomics research stage, and puts forward the origin model of citrus from two rounds of natural crossing of pomelo and citrus. The team has constructed the basic database of citrus color, bitterness, aroma, sugar acid and flavor, and analyzed the molecular basis of vitamin C-rich in sweet citrus fruits from the rapid amplification, functional differentiation and fruit-specific expression of galacturonic acid reductase gene. Focusing on color traits and carotenoid metabolism and regulation, the subcellular organelle basis of sweet orange red-flesh mutant was analyzed, and a model of Citrus chromatid differentiation was proposed. Allele polymorphism and allele regulation mechanism of key genes such as speed-limiting enzyme (PSY), lycopene cyclase (LCYb) and carotenoid lyase (CCD4b) were revealed, which enriched the regulation and storage mechanism of carotenoid metabolism in fruits. 58 SCI papers of the results of the project were published in Nature Genetics, Plant Physiology and Plant Journal. The results of the genome research of sweet orange were nominated for “Top Ten Science and Technology Progress News of China” in 2012.
Professor Shi Zhihua’s team from College of Resources & Environment won the second prize of natural science for their achievements on “Soil Water Erosion Mechanism and Process Simulation in Complex Landscape Environment”. Based on the distribution and dynamics of sediment particles, the mechanism of sediment sorting and transportation during steep slope erosion was revealed in the project; the identification technology of sediment sources by biological markers was established, and the transformation mechanism of erosion sources and sediment sinks with rainfall conditions was clarified. The lagging mechanism of rainfall-runoff-erosion sediment yield in the basin and the water and sediment collection and transportation among heterogeneous landscape units in the basin were illustrated. The team revealed the process of water and sediment collection and transport between heterogeneous landscape units in the basin, set up a controlling technical system of soil erosion ecological regulation centered on “dispersing kinetic energy of slope erosion, improving vertical structure function and optimizing horizontal landscape pattern”. Two of the teammates won the “Youth Science and Technology Award” of Chinese Society of Soil and Water Conservation.
Source: http://news.hzau.edu.cn/2019/0127/53575.shtml
Translated by: Yang Chengzhi
Supervised by: Wang Xiaoyan
