Breakthrough in Breeding of Insect-Resistant Transgenic Wheat

The national "863 project" project "genetically modified insect-resistant wheat" was certified by experts before the breeding period, marking a breakthrough in the breeding of transgenic wheat in China. Ascariasis is one of the major pests that harm wheat, especially in the main wheat producing areas in eastern China. When aphids secrete a mucus during feeding, they reduce the photosynthetic efficiency of the leaves, and the piercing and sucking mouthparts also produce wounds when they penetrate the leaves, spreading a variety of viruses. For a long time, our country mainly relied on spraying insecticides to prevent and control. At the same time of killing locusts, insecticides would also eliminate natural enemies of locusts and damage the ecological environment. The “Insect-resistance Transgenic Wheat” research group, led by Prof. Zhu Baocheng of Hebei University, introduced an insect-resistant gene into wheat cells to obtain wheat varieties resistant to aphids. During the study, experts selected several varieties of wheat widely planted in North China and successfully introduced the GAN anti-aphid genes into wheat plants to induce the differentiation of transgenic cells. The transgenic wheat plants were obtained, and then they were selected for wheat cultivars. Strongly resistant plants. At present, the research has successfully bred the second generation seeds of transgenic plants and passed the appraisal of the expert group of the Ministry of Science and Technology. Experiments have shown that the transgenic wheat has reduced the number of aphids on the plant by more than 70%. The GAN gene is very resistant to aphids, brown planthoppers and leafhoppers. The production, yield and quality of this GM wheat are not significantly different from those of common wheat. Experts from the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences said that the application and promotion of this genetically modified wheat variety will greatly reduce the amount of pesticides used, reduce the destructive pollution of pesticides on the ecological environment, and have a broad prospect of production.

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