Chapter 153 Chapter Breeding Researchers Are a Bit StubbornFor breeding, determining the breeding goals is the first priority. Without goals, you will either rely on chance or achieve nothing. Traditional breeding is to select and infer genotypes through phenotypes. Molecular breeding starts with the genotype. First, the genotype is selected and then it is determined whether it is the desired type. Both hybrid breeding and the use of hybrid vigor require two parents. Molecular breeding requires a parent and one or more target genes, which must be complementary and together possess favorable genes for the breeding target traits. If both parents do not have favorable genes that control the target traits, the breeding goals can basically not be achieved, which also shows that the selection of parents is crucial. Without the use of new favorable genes or gene combinations, there can be no substantial breakthroughs in breeding. The epoch-making dwarf rice and hybrid rice varieties Shanyou 63 and corn varieties Zhengdan 958 have all demonstrated the importance of excellent parents. Even the directed breeding of Guoyang Seed Store requires the support of parents. Tianyu No. 1, Tianjiao No. 1, etc. have inherited the excellent genes of their parents. In addition, seed stores have an extremely powerful ability to accurately locate specific points on plant genes and repair, eliminate and enhance plant genes.
For example, if a gene sequence is a little too long, you can cut it out with scissors. If one of the ATCGs that make up DNA is wrong, you can erase it with an eraser and then write the correct one in with a pencil, but the pencil and eraser will not remain in the cell. This also means that if Guo Yang has enough natural energy to squander, he can create all kinds of fantastic seeds through the seed shop. Disease resistance, seed quality, yield, nutritional content, plant flavor… It is somewhat similar to gene editing technology, but its efficiency is terrifyingly high. Today, Jiahe Group is growing rapidly in the field of environmental restoration, including saline-alkali land improvement, desert control, and degraded grassland restoration. The area involved has now reached more than two million mu, and the governance effect is gradually showing. The accumulation speed of natural energy will definitely become faster and faster, but my country's regional environment varies greatly, and there are many types of regional seed demands. For the sake of safety and maximizing profits, Guo Yang will definitely expand from point to surface first, and the more heavyweight seeds will be released at a later stage. For example, now he has cultivated 6 varieties of forage grass, which only consumes 96 points of natural energy. Including the newly acquired ones, there are still 731 points of natural energy left. But Guo Yang will not breed new seeds until a breakthrough is made in the breeding laboratory. Plant genetic engineering is a relatively complex high-tech technology that requires the investment of specialized senior scientific and technological personnel, modern instruments and equipment, and a large amount of capital. But a lot of the funding here is for colleges and universities. In 2005, the investment in hardware equipment to build a basic molecular plant breeding laboratory would require at least 30 yuan. It can accommodate 3-5 people to conduct molecular breeding experiments. A laboratory with slightly better hardware configuration and slightly larger scale would cost no more than around 50 yuan at most. Money is not a problem for Jiahe; the difficulty lies in the allocation of talent and the accumulation of basic technological research. For example, the location, separation and transformation of agronomic trait genes, breeding of crop genetic populations, construction of molecular genetic maps, etc.
These are time-consuming and laborious tasks. Tianhe Seeds has now also established a breeding laboratory, but the scale of its R&D personnel does not match its existing status. Vegetables, corn, wheat, forage grass, and soybeans can all be considered research directions. Moreover, if Guo Yang's current breeding speed is to be maintained, each team will need to have a sufficient number of people. Guo Yang pondered it for a moment. There must be more than 10 research teams, and the number of R&D personnel in the main corn, forage, vegetable, soybean and other teams must not be small. To reach the top in the country first, the number of R&D personnel in Tianhe Seed Industry must reach more than 15%, which means at least one or two hundred people. Every field needs a leader, and it will continue to expand in the future. The demand for talent is really huge. After leaving the laboratory, Guo Yang stayed at the group headquarters and led a group of people to design a commercial breeding platform. Finally, after a series of considerations. Guo Yang decided to integrate the group's existing R&D resources, invest 1 million yuan, and register Tianhe Seed Science Research Institute Co., Ltd. We will build three major platforms for biotechnology, traditional breeding, and pilot evaluation, and establish Jiahe's commercial breeding system from the entire process of resource innovation to variety approval. The only troublesome point is the invitation of talents, as real breeding talents are very rare. Breeding is a very hard job, and many college students who study breeding are afraid of the hard work and switch to other majors. Most of the students recruited from universities choose to leave the breeding industry because the work is too hard, and experienced breeding talents are more concentrated in scientific research institutes. It is extremely painful to poach people from scientific research institutions. There is a saying in the industry that those who do agricultural research are not necessarily craftsmen, but they are definitely "stubborn", just like the stones next to the toilet, which are smelly and hard. In addition to recruiting talents through headhunters, Guo Yang often has to find time to poach people. After three years of development, Jiahe Group is no longer an unknown company. Tianjiao No. 1 helps farmers increase their income, and Chihong No. 1 supports the domestic high-end vegetable seeds market. Tianyu No. 1 has become a dark horse in this year's seed market, with an unprecedented speed of promotion. However, in the process of recruiting talents, Guo Yang encountered repeated setbacks. First, we went to Hainan Island and found Mr. Cheng, a man with gray hair. His skin color and figure made him look like a typical northern rural man. When Guo Yang met him, Old Cheng was still breeding corn in the fields, and his arms were covered with marks from the stems and leaves. The environment of the breeding base is also simple, with no shelter from wind or rain, and life there seems to be mediocre. But Mr. Cheng was obsessed with corn breeding all his life. Facing opportunities for promotion and transfer back to big cities, he was not tempted at all and was willing to stay in the countryside. When he learned about Guo Yang's purpose, Mr. Cheng just praised, "Tianyu No. 1 is a good variety, better than Zhengdan 958." "Taking compact plant shape as a research direction and relying on improving crop stress resistance and achieving high yields in groups is indeed a good idea."
Guo Yang smiled and said, "Mr. Cheng, Jiahe has now established an independent breeding company and plans to conduct research in the field of biotechnology breeding. We need you..." "Stop it, stop it." "As an old man, I don't know anything about biotechnology breeding. I only know that the existing breeding projects can produce results based on the idea of compact plant shape." "Let's go. Although I'm interested in money, I'm more worried that I'll accomplish nothing in the future." Guo Yang said leisurely, "You have bred 20 to 30 varieties." Old Cheng's eyes widened. "Grades can only reflect the past, not the present or the future." Then he went into the corn seed field. Guo Yang said loudly: "Okay, Jiahe's breeding platform will be open to the public, and you are welcome to come and do experiments then." "Then I, Old Cheng, will definitely come to support you!" Old Cheng's voice came from afar. This old Biden! In fact, Guo Yang invited Mr. Cheng not because of his breeding skills. He is over 60 years old, how great can he be? However, its management capabilities in breeding research are very strong. Under the leadership of Mr. Cheng, the research institute where he works started from scratch and now has fixed assets exceeding 10 million yuan. It is the top student among county-level research institutes in the country! Guo Yang complained silently, he was just an old stubborn man who just worked hard in the fields with pen and paper to take notes. A few days later, Guo Yang, who had been rejected repeatedly, received a new piece of news. Liang Guo, the head of Denghai Seed Research and Development Center, was guiding corn seed production in Zhangye, and Guo Yang hurriedly drove to Zhangye. Without even having time to drink a sip of water, he went straight into the corn field. Liang Guo is 34 years old this year, and the age difference between him and Guo Yang is not that big. Liang Guo has also had some exposure to cutting-edge biotechnologies such as gene breeding and gene editing, and the two of them got along quite well. Guo Yang felt hope. But before he could be happy, another man with dark skin came out, wearing a straw hat, an ordinary white shirt, an old belt and trousers. The man stared at Guo Yang with a bad look, "Okay, kid, you've found the right person for me, Li Denghai." Li Denghai? Guo Yang looked at the authentic farmer in front of him and found it hard to imagine that he was the chairman of Denghai Pioneer Seed Industry. Li Denghai said with an unhappy look: "Xiao Liang and I had just arrived in Zhangye when Mr. Guo came right after. This was all planned!" He smiled awkwardly. Li Denghai is known as the father of Chinese corn. Although he is not a high-ranking official, he has a very high political status. The Yedan 13 he cultivated broke the world record for summer corn yield in 1989. Although subsequent research did not lead to breakthroughs in yield, only improvements were made in stress resistance and adaptability. In recent years, due to poor operating performance, the company established a joint venture, Denghai Pioneer, with DuPont Pioneer of the United States. But Li Denghai started out as a farmer technician. He had no national projects, no research funds, and no scientific research assistants. It doesn't even have a decent office, but it has developed more than 30 high-yield corn varieties in 30 years.
Such people are undoubtedly worthy of respect. But Guo Yang will not give up because of this. "A good horse is known by a good horse breeder, and a wise ruler seeks out talented people. Who wouldn't like a talent like Brother Liang?" Li Denghai was also unwilling to give up the capable general he had trained himself, let alone the fact that he was aiding the enemy. The appearance of Tianyu No. 1 had already made Denghai Seed Industry very uncomfortable. "Denghai is the leader in the domestic corn seed industry. Xiaoliang, you also know the potential of Pioneer 335. It is definitely one of the best corn varieties in the country, not to mention the technical support of Pioneer." When Guo Yang heard Li Denghai put out the Xianyu 335, he immediately became unhappy. If you had said the Denghai series, I could still give you some face. "Oh, Xianyu 335? Can it compare to Tianyu No. 1?" "Moreover, Jiahe has more sufficient funds, a better experimental environment, and has made major breakthroughs in biological breeding technology. It is just waiting for talents like Brother Liang to organize corn genetic breeding." Li Denghai immediately fought back and said the words he often said to motivate the R&D team. "No matter how many boxes of calculation paper you have, you can't calculate a good seed. No matter how good the laboratory conditions are, they can't replace the sincere labor of facing the loess and back to the sky in the scorching heat and severe cold, in the fierce wind and rain. If you are not willing to be a farmer and take care of it like your own child, the opportunity may slip away from you at any time! " Guo Yang seemed to see Liang Guo's eyes shining, and finally he could only leave with tears in his eyes. Ugh! I can't understand the train of thought of these people. Although hybrid breeding is more efficient than traditional natural and artificial selection, it still requires multiple generations of backcrossing to maintain the stability of genetic traits of offspring. The process is not only time-consuming, but also requires a high degree of expertise and technology during operation. But what to do? These old veterans only believe that hard work pays off. I only believe in hard work year after year, seizing time in the wind and rain, and seizing efficiency under the scorching sun. Sweat is poured into the loess to grow a seedling, and effort is poured into just for a bud. Guo Yang just wanted to say, boss, you are out of date. The mainstream in the world now is biological breeding technology, molecular markers, chromosome engineering, and genetic engineering... After repeatedly hitting a wall with the older generation of breeding experts, Guo Yang had to adjust his direction. It would be better to recruit a group of undergraduate, graduate and doctoral graduates from universities and start training them again. It just takes some effort. After changing batches, gold will always remain after the great waves wash away the sand. (End of this chapter)
