Plant laboratory for exploring adversity

This is a special laboratory It is made of glass around it It looks like a huge greenhouse There are all kinds of plants in it Some plants have withered because they haven't been watered for a long time Some plants are specially planted in the saline alkali soil Others are placed in the soil with heavy metal pollution All their growth and reproduction have been recorded for scientific research This is the adversity plant laboratory, which is used to observe the resistance of plants and carry out various transgenic experiments Recently, the reporter came to the College of life science of Shandong Normal University to visit the Key Laboratory of adversity plants in Shandong Province Gouwei papyrus entered the greenhouse in the open space in front of the building of the College of life sciences of Shandong Normal University The reporter saw the "Key Laboratory of adversity plants in Shandong Province" which has been built for a year According to Hou Lei, a student who is studying for a doctor in the College of Life Sciences, this is only a part of the laboratory of adversity plants The reporter walked into the lab and found that it was filled with various plants Some plants were already yellow and withered due to lack of water, and some Petri dishes contained some white crystal particles "These are all the plants for the laboratory to use," Hou Lei explained to reporters In order to study the resistance of plants, the laboratory will carry out simulated ecological reproduction for different plants For example, some plants will be planted in the soil rich in salt and alkali, and some plants will be planted in the dry soil What's more, in one corner of the greenhouse, the reporter actually found a large number of Dogtail grass, which is part of the laboratory's stress resistance experiment "We give these Dogtail grass all kinds of bad environment, and observe their response to the bad environment." In addition to simulating the harsh growth environment under natural conditions, the laboratory staff and professors are also carrying out various attempts, such as simulating ultraviolet light on plants through various special lights to investigate the response of plants, or can reduce or increase the temperature, observe the growth changes of plants, etc "In fact, the so-called adversity laboratory is to provide plants with extremely bad living environment, forcing them to have the ability to cope with these environments in their growth." Hou Lei told reporters that for plants, when they encounter severe adversity, they often produce some unexpected mutations: "it is impossible for every plant to produce gene mutations, but there will always be a small number of plants that can adapt to the mutation environment and survive." In a popular way, it is to promote the evolution of plants artificially What kind of help will the plant laboratory provide to scientists in the future? Maybe we can see from the scene described by Zhang Hui, the doctoral supervisor of Shandong Normal University "We all know that the earth's fresh water resources are decreasing now What should we do if there is not enough fresh water in the future? We can use the sea water to irrigate the farmland." Zhang Hui described to reporters a situation: in the next few years, China's coastal provinces will build a large number of water conservancy projects on the seashore The blue sea water will be introduced into inland areas, through rivers or special pipelines, and then sent to rice fields for large-scale irrigation These rice living in the blue sea grow, sprout and bear fruit like ordinary rice, and then they are harvested by harvesters and finally sent to our dining table The drought and desert that plagued us have also been effectively controlled A special plant has started to grow rapidly in the arid desert, and the originally scattered yellow sand has become an oasis; Crops that were afraid of low temperature began to grow and develop continuously in the north, and the heavy metal pollution that threatened our body was also decomposed and digested due to the emergence of some special plants "You may think it's a dream, but for us experts who study plant resistance, the dream is getting closer and closer to reality." Zhang Hui definitely told reporters Why does Zhang Hui, who grew up drinking salt water, so convinced that planting rice in sea water is not a dream? The reporter found the answer in the plant laboratory in adversity In the greenhouse of the laboratory, a special plant is cultivated in large quantities, and its soil contains a lot of salt After careful observation, the reporter found that the surface of these plants has layers of white particles, "these white things are the salt in the soil." Zhang Hui told reporters that this kind of plant is called the blood tonic grass (also known as the sky star) Unlike other plants, the herb itself has the ability to secrete salt "It's just like us, when we exercise hard, our sweat glands will discharge a lot of sweat The herb itself has something similar to sweat glands." When the laboratory staff irrigate the blood tonic grass with the water with high salt content, they will absorb the salt through the rhizome, and then drain the salt out of the body through the "sweat glands" on the leaf surface, so as to continue to survive Now, Zhang Huizheng leads his students to cultivate a large number of blood tonifying herbs, and then separates the "sweat glands" on the leaves of blood tonifying herbs under the microscope for observation, "why does blood tonifying herb have such sweat glands, while other plants don't? We can find out the reasons for their sweat glands through DNA comparison, and then try to embed this DNA into rice to make water Rice also has the ability to excrete salt " Zhang Hui told reporters that many scientists in the world are studying similar problems "Everyone is trying to use seawater to irrigate plants, because in the future, freshwater resources will become more and more precious, so how to use seawater is a very important topic." "In different environments, plants will show a variety of resistance, such as drought resistance, salt and alkali resistance, low temperature resistance or high temperature resistance, etc., which are the resistance of plants." Zhang Hui told reporters that China has always attached great importance to agricultural development, so a lot of money has been invested in the research of plant stress resistance: "I hope that we can cultivate drought resistance, salt and alkali resistance, low temperature resistance or high temperature resistance and other plants through plant stress experiments, so as to change the ecological environment and increase the development of agriculture." Plants that can decompose heavy metals "can not only cultivate plants that are resistant to drought, salt and alkali, low temperature and high temperature, but also use the resistance of plants to decompose heavy metal pollution." Zhang Hui told reporters that due to the increasing exploitation, smelting, processing and commercial manufacturing of heavy metals, many heavy metals such as lead, mercury, cadmium and cobalt have entered the atmosphere, water and soil, causing serious environmental pollution "For example, vegetables, some time ago, there were news reports that heavy metal pollution of vegetables in some places exceeded the standard, but some plants had decomposition effect on heavy metals." Zhang Hui told reporters that in the vicinity of some heavy metal rich mines, there are often some plants growing These plants have the ability to decompose heavy metal pollution: "we can cultivate some plants by simulating mines or using heavy metal polluted soil, and then observe their resistance to heavy metals, and select the plants that can decompose heavy metals according to their changes Species are studied, and then plants that break down or resist heavy metals are developed " What does a noun mean about plant resistance? "Any plant has resistance." Zhang Hui, a doctoral supervisor at Shandong Normal University, told reporters that the so-called plant resistance refers to some characteristics of plants that resist adverse environment "For example, cacti can survive in the desert with extreme water shortage, mangroves in Hainan can live in the sea for a long time, and so on, which are the resistance of plants." Zhang Hui told reporters that there were many plants in the remote ancient times When the earth's crust changed due to movement, the living environment of these plants also changed dramatically: sometimes, because of the uplift of the mainland, the climate was wet and the temperature was reduced, sometimes the ground was sunken, leading to the backflow of water and seawater Under the dramatic change of the environment, a large number of plants were planted But there are also a few plants, although their physiological activities have been severely damaged, but they have survived tenaciously The upheaval of the surrounding living environment is still continuing, and these tenacious plants begin to adapt to these environments gradually, so they continue to reproduce, and their genes begin to change gradually, until they fully adapt to the existing living environment "Some plants can take different ways to resist various stress factors, which is the resistance of plants." Zhang Hui told reporters that it is precisely because of this resistance that plants can adapt to the environment continuously After tens of millions of years of continuous evolution, they have formed all kinds of plants we see today "Of course, because plants are resistant to adversity, other aspects of them will weaken, such as cacti, although they are resistant to drought and high temperature, but they grow slowly." Zhang Hui, who has been engaged in the research of plant resistance genes for many years, cannot help but lament the magic of the Creator: "it's just like human beings When one side of you is prominent, the other side may be weakened, so that's why we don't have all-around talents in the world."