Deng Xiuxin giving an address
On the evening of May 10th, Deng Xiuxin, member of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, was invited to give a lecture entitled “Citrus Research Driven by Industrial Problems” on Frontier Forum of Crop Science in the hall of National Key Laboratory of Crop Genetic Improvement at HZAU. Professor Yan Jianbing, dean of the College of Plant Science and Technology, presided over the meeting.
Deng Xiuxin, as the leader of the citrus research team of HZAU, introduced the team’s recent research progress. Based on the problems in citrus industry, Deng and his team carried out the citrus gene resource exploiting, constructed the citrus genome research platform, explored and cultivated excellent germplasm resources of citrus, bred and popularized the new varieties. Deng began his report by briefing the existent problems in citrus industry and the research background, and then introduced the aim of its team ---to solve one or two major industrial problems, to support the development of China’s citrus industry, to build an efficient genetic improvement platform and to improve breeding efficiency. After 30 year’s hard work in cell engineering, Deng’s team has created seedless citrus varieties, obtained seedless types by bud mutation selection, found a new way to make citrus seedless, and cultivated the first triploid seedless citrus. He suggested: “We needn’t confine us to a certain method. We can try more ways, as long as the results can be obtained, and technology is feasible and budget is sufficient.”
Since 2000, the citrus team has organized their national counterparts to screen varieties and cultivate them in accordance with the diversity of climate in China so as to prolong the citrus fruit supply period. And he introduced that the whole year supply of fresh citrus fruits is basically guaranteed in China with appropriate planting layouts, high-quality varieties and skilled cultivation techniques, which greatly improves the benefits of citrus producing areas. Deng also presented the progress of the citrus team in shortening the citrus breeding cycle, accelerating the process of genetic improvement & sequencing citrus genome. Besides, he shared his experience in color research in recent years. He emphasized that unfavorable living conditions is the main factor to induce the production of colorful fruits, flowers, and the secondary metabolites in plants as well. Better yields are produced in favorable living conditions while better quality in unfavorable ones.
In the report, Deng concluded that a citrus research and industrial support system are gradually taking shape with the help of expanded team and broadened research field over 30-year development. He also made suggestions to teachers on maintaining clear research directions, setting appropriate goals, conducting continuous research, making full use of talents and prioritizing cooperation & sharing in the teamwork.
Source: http://news.hzau.edu.cn/2019/0513/54186.shtml
Translated by: Liu Shaokang
Supervised by: Wang Xiaoyan
