Looking forward to the breakthrough of plant stress resistance research in China

On April 19, the International Conference on epigenetics of higher plants was held at the Institute of genetics and development, Chinese Academy of Sciences Zhu Jiankang, a famous biologist and academician of the American Academy of Sciences, was invited to make a report on the study of DNA demethylation in Arabidopsis After the meeting, in an interview with China Science Daily, Zhu Jiankang said that the genetic mechanism of plant resistance to adversity is a very interesting scientific problem Although many scientists have conducted research, the apparent genetic problem of plant resistance has not been clarified "I'm very interested in it Half of my lab is about epigenetics and half about adversity Most of the research is on the mechanism of salt resistance, drought resistance, cold resistance and heat resistance " Zhu Jiankang has set up a stress research laboratory in Shanghai Institute of plant physiology, Chinese Academy of Sciences He said that the adversity laboratory is just a start, and the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Shanghai will jointly establish a research center for plant adversity Zhu Jiankang told China Science Daily that the research prospect of adversity plants is very broad, which can solve many problems that hinder human development For example, if we find out the salt resistance genes of salt resistant plants, find out their salt resistance mechanisms, and then transfer these mechanisms to other plants, then many saline alkali lands in China will become a treasure In basic research, scientists have found some important stress resistance genes Australian scientists have also successfully used these genes to carry out stress resistant wheat breeding However, Zhu Jiankang believes that the real transgenic anti stress crops have not appeared, especially the very anti stress crops, which are still in people's imagination "In fact, both drought resistance and salt resistance are much more complicated than people think It's as complex as cancer research " Zhu said he hoped that the plant stress research center established in China would make a breakthrough and make a revolutionary project Talking about how to view China's scientific development, Zhu said that China's science is in a golden age, with both human resources and the government willing to invest "Although there are some problems, everyone is trying to change In particular, the proportion of life science in all disciplines is increasing " According to Zhu, biomedicine is also one of the most invested disciplines in the United States, with the National Institutes of health alone spending more than $30 billion a year In addition to the increased investment from the state, the popularity of life science research can be seen from the full audience A female student at Peking University told reporters that she did not study epigenetics, but that the best scientists in the field would like to open her eyes "I'm studying epigenetics, and now I'm doing it." "Epigenetics is very hot now, and people are very interested in understanding its mechanism," said a doctoral student at China Agricultural University.