Sunday, November 15, 2009

A Chinese Scientist

Yuan Longping, the Father of Hybrid Rice in China, is the Director General of China National Hybrid Rice Research & Development Center in Changsha, Hunan. He won the 2004 World Food Prize at Iowa University state in Ames, Iowa. As a pioneer in hybrid rice technology, he developed the genetic tools for hybrid breeding, provided enough food to feed an additional 60 million people in China each year. He changed the self-pollinating characteristics of rice and created a new system which is known as 3-line system. The achievement dramatically increases the yield of rice, elevated 20% of grain output.

From 1960, Yuan Longping learnt crops such as hybrid sorghum, hybrid corn and aspermous watermelon had been widely planted in the world. He found out that geneticists like mendel and their adherents had raised significant doctrines about gene segregation, independent assortment and catenation reaction. He got the enlightenment form such principles. Therefore, he changed his mind from unsexual hybrid theory into sexual hybrid theory and attempted the experiment on rice.

In July, 1960, found out a kind of rice which showed different characteristic compared with other rice in his paddy. Next spring he planted the mutative seeds in the paddy again and found out these seeds were naturally hybridized. He was interested in that natural hybrid rice, so he started working on artificial hybrid rice. He collected data and published the new discovery about “male sterility of rice” which firstly introduced the characteristic of male rice sterility. He divided the feature into three kinds, and then spent 6 years to point out the deficiency of using cultivate rice in hybridization.

He traveled around China and finally found out a kind of wild male sterilized rice in Hainan which strongly held their sterilized ability. After that, he delivered the new found plant to different research group among the country to do the research. In another 10 years, accompany with many scientists, he found out 1000 kinds of rice contained highly cure ability of sterility. One of them, which were called IR24, can cure above 90% of sterility.

In October, 1973, Yuan Long published a paper about the experiment, announced his research mad a success.
In August, 1995, the new advanced hybridization research was doing successfully. The new technology can make an additional 750-1500 kilograms per hectare outputs compared with 3-line system hybridization.

His research still continuing, up to August, 1998, his latest technology made another additional 56.5 kilograms outputs per hectare. The Agriculture of China was developed greatly because of his outstanding contribution.
Conference:

“Yuan Longping”
http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=aph&AN=14588733&site=ehost-live

“2004 World Food Prize Awarded to Rice Breeders.” Nutrition Today; Sep/Oct2004, Vol. 39 Issue 5, P220-220, 1p, 1bw.

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