Southwest Wildlife Germplasm Bank: Here, seeds can live for thousands of years

Here, the seeds can live for thousands of years——into the Wildlife Germplasm Bank of Southwest China

Here, the seeds can live for a thousand years-into the Southwest China Wildlife Germplasm Bank

Xinhua News Agency, Kunming, October 7th, title: Here, seeds can live for thousands of years-into the Southwest China Wildlife Germplasm Bank

Xinhua News Agency reporter

Recently, a batch of seeds of S.
sylvestris and Hazelnut rabbits have been sent to Kunming's Southwest China Wildlife Germplasm Bank for careful preservation
.

From August to September this year, Chinese scientists collected them from the 6200-meter area of ​​Mount Everest, setting a new record for the highest elevation of plant seeds collected in China

Green jungle in the northern suburb of Kunming, China Ke Xueyuan Kunming Institute of Botany, four-story building of wildlife in southwest China Germplasm Bank where looks very ordinary, but it is the Rare and Endangered Plants of "home": We have to save plant There are 10,601 kinds of seeds, accounting for more than 30% of the total number of seed plant species in China
.

Academy of Sciences

"The Boat of Life"

"The Boat of Life"

"A species affect a country's economy, the relationship between a gene into a prosperous country
.

" The late famous botanist, China Ke Xueyuan Academician Wu Zhengyi, who had been issued with emotion

Academician of the Academy of Sciences

Experts say that the genes of hybrid rice cultivated by Academician Yuan Longping are derived from wild rice
.

Li Dezhu, director of the Wildlife Germplasm Bank of Southwest China, said that the fate of wild rice is worrisome: Take Yunnan as an example.

academician

In 1999, the then Chinese Academy of Sciences Wu Zhengyi honorary director of the Kunming Institute of Botany Academy of Sciences proposed the establishment of wildlife germplasm bank as soon as possible
.

Under his appeal, the Southwest China Wildlife Germplasm Bank began construction in 2004 and started operation in 2007

Academician of the Academy of Sciences

Known as the "Animal Kingdom", "Plant Kingdom", "World Garden" and "Species Gene Bank", Yunnan is extremely rich in biodiversity
.

Li Dezhu said that the germplasm bank was built in Yunnan because Yunnan is rich in biological resources

"Wild biological germplasm resources have great potential for application in the biological industry.
The international community pays great attention to wild biological germplasm resources, especially the collection and preservation of wild plants
.

" Yu Fuqiang, deputy director of the Wildlife Germplasm Bank of Southwest China It is said that the germplasm bank here has preserved 10601 species and 85046 plant seeds, accounting for 36% of the total number of seed plant species in China, making China's endemic, rare and endangered species and species with important economic, ecological and scientific research value safe.

Rescue collection and storage of seeds, preservation of endangered animal and plant genetic materials.
.
.
The germplasm resource bank makes unremitting efforts for the protection of global biodiversity
.

"This is the home of seeds and the boat of life.

More than 70 levels of seed protection

More than 70 levels of seed protection

Davidia involucrata, canopy wood.
.
.
In the cold storage of the germplasm resource bank, precious seeds quietly "living" in the "glass jar house" and are dormant
.

The procedures for entering the cold storage are strict, passing through two doors and a buffer room to avoid convective entry of moist air

It is not easy for a seed to be stored in the warehouse.
It must follow the "3E" standard, that is, Endangered, Endemic, and Economic
.
Among them, "endemic" not only refers to the uniqueness of China, but more importantly, the uniqueness of the narrow area
.
Following this standard, rare and endangered plants such as Himalayan yew, Qiaojia five needle pine, China's unique Yunnan golden maple and Diantong are given priority for preservation
.

But satisfying the 3E principle is not enough, the seeds have to pass more than 70 passes
.
From the beginning of the collection, the journey of seeding through the barriers began
.

From the desert Gobi to the tropical rain forest, from the roof of the world to the Sanjiang Plain.
.
.
Seed collectors have footprints everywhere
.
In order to ensure genetic diversity, researchers must collect the same plant in different growing locations
.
Cai Jie, director of the Germplasm Preservation Center of the Wildlife Germplasm Bank of Southwest China, said that generally 10,000 seeds of each plant are collected and stored, with a minimum of 2,500 seeds
.

The seed collection process is fraught with risks
.
Once, Cai Jie and his colleagues collected seeds in Guangxi
.
After the fruit-covered branches were cut off, everyone subconsciously picked them up with their hands.
Suddenly, a sharp tingling sensation went down the back of the hands, arms and to the heart.
Everyone tried washing with soap and water, even using urine, but the pain could not be relieved
.
After a few days, the toxicity diminished and the tingling sensation subsided
.

"This plant is called hemp tree, a member of the nettle family.
The bristles on the fruit contain a toxin called'chrysoderma', which can cause severe pain in the human body
.
" Cai Jie said, collecting seeds has brought us Challenges have also renewed our understanding of nature
.
It would be a shame if many species went extinct before we knew and discovered them
.

At room temperature, ordinary seeds can be stored for up to one to two years.
In order to extend the life of the seeds, low temperature and drying methods should be used
.
Therefore, the collected seeds must go through multiple quality control procedures before they can be stored in the warehouse
.

In the seed cleaning room, the reporter saw that the scientific researchers poured seeds into the separator, the full seeds fell, and the empty seeds were blown aside
.
Researchers will also randomly select some seeds for X-ray photography, and it is clear at a glance whether the seeds are full or empty
.
The healthy seeds left by the sorting continue to be cleaned, inspected, and counted
.
"Some seeds are very small, such as the seeds of endangered orchids.
One piece is tens of micrometers long (1 millimeter is equal to 1000 micrometers).
It is difficult to dry and count
.
There is static electricity in the drying room, and the seeds will be adsorbed on the weighing instrument.
It is difficult to remove, in order to avoid loss, we take a part and weigh it to get the average weight, and then determine the number of seeds by weighing the total weight
.
" Seed manager Qin Shaofa said
.

After counting, the seeds will be dried again, and the seeds will be placed for about a month in an environment with a temperature of 15 degrees Celsius and a relative humidity of 15%
.
Cai Jie said that the moisture content of seeds drops to 5% to 7%.
Under low temperature and dry conditions, the seeds enter a "dormancy period" and basically reach the conditions for entering the cold storage
.
"If the water content is too high, the water freezes and expands, causing damage to the cells in the seed, and the seed life will be reduced
.
"

After being packed in airtight containers, the seeds enter the "hibernation" suite-a cold storage at minus 20 degrees Celsius
.
Here, the seeds can survive for decades or even thousands of years.
After the cotton seeds "sleep" for 60,000 years, the vitality will drop to 10%
.

Opening the cold storage door, the cold breath came
.
Glass bottles are neatly arranged on the shelf, and the seeds are put into the bottle according to the size, and then put into the airtight jar
.
The bar code on the bottle indicates the storage location of seeds and germplasm information
.
The seeds of each species are divided into two parts, which are stored in a backup library and an active library.
The former is kept forever, and the latter is tested for germination
.
"Every 5 or 10 years, we will sample germination experiments to see if the seeds are still viable
.
" said Yang Juan, the seed germination manager
.

Seed is hope

Seed is hope

The plant seeds sleeping here are carefully cared for
.
After photographing the shape of the seed through a stereoscope, it is synthesized into a three-dimensional image with bright colors and strange shapes, like alien creatures, which arouses people's attention and curiosity
.

At present, the Southwest Wildlife Germplasm Bank of China has established a germplasm collection network involving dozens of domestic scientific research institutions, universities and nature reserves, and has formulated collection specifications and standards, focusing on collection of key national protection and Wild plant species such as rare and endangered species
.

The rapid loss of biological germplasm resources has also prompted countries around the world to establish various types of seed banks
.
At present, after the establishment of the Southwest China Wildlife Germplasm Bank, a considerable proportion of the seeds of rare, endangered and endemic species have been put into the bank, and the germplasm bank has become a veritable refuge
.
"When a species is extinct, we will use these preserved germplasm resources
.
" Li Dezhu said
.

There are many nature reserves in China for the protection of biodiversity.
Why do we need to build a germplasm resource bank? Li Dezhu said that protection can be more reliable only if human beings make more ways to protect species
.
What if the nature reserve encounters fire, freezing, and insect damage? The germplasm resource bank can effectively solve the problems of natural disasters and germplasm degradation
.

Improving existing crop varieties may even break through the bottleneck of species restrictions and interspecific hybridization, creating new traits or new crop varieties.
.
.
Scientists imagine that these seeds may be able to go to space in the future and create a new one on a suitable planet.
New world
.

When collecting seeds, scientific researchers will record the collection time, location, altitude, soil type, surrounding environment and other information in detail, and use the leaf, flower, fruit and other information of the plant as vouchers to correspond to the seeds one by one, as a future ecological restoration Basis
.
Li Dezhu said that seeds are life and hope
.
Hope to better protect the future of mankind by protecting germplasm resources
.
(Reporters Wang Changshan, Yue Ranran, Zhou Lei, Song Chen)