People's Daily Online, Beijing, April 7 (Reporter Zhao Zhuqing) Reporters learned from the Institute of Geographical Sciences and Natural Resources of the Chinese Academy of Sciences that recently, the national key research and development plan "Research and Industrialization of Low-Cost and Long-term Treatment Technology and Equipment for Heavy Metal Contaminated Farmland", led by the Institute and participated by Northwest A&F University and other units, has reached a milestone. As one of the landmark achievements of the project, the 60K liquid phase gene chip "Low Cadmium No. 1" was officially released in Beijing.
Cadmium is a carcinogen. Long-term intake of wheat with excessive cadmium will damage kidneys, bones and other organs, seriously threatening human health. However, traditional screening of low-cadmium wheat varieties relies on phenotypic identification, which is not only time-consuming and labor-intensive, but also low in accuracy, making it difficult to meet the needs of large-scale production.
It is to solve this problem that "Low Cadmium No. 1" came into being. According to the project team, the chip took five years to develop and is the first gene chip to focus on detecting the absorption and accumulation characteristics of heavy metal ions such as cadmium in wheat. It integrates more than 60,000 core genetic marker loci and constructs a genome-wide genetic marker network covering more than ten metal ion-related gene loci such as cadmium, arsenic, lead, etc., enabling "panoramic" scanning of heavy metal ion accumulation and other traits, and assisting in the breeding of personalized varieties such as low cadmium.
Not only that, "Low Cadmium No. 1" also realizes "one core for multiple purposes". In addition to sites related to heavy metal accumulation, the chip also covers sites related to agronomic traits such as yield, quality, and disease resistance, which can meet the needs of various application scenarios such as ecology and agronomy.
In terms of detection efficiency and accuracy, "Low Cadmium No. 1" has established an efficient "data-decision-making" system. Based on more than 440 wheat genome resequencing core germplasm populations, the team integrated big data information on grain cadmium content and key agronomic traits, and built an efficient "phenotype-effect value" correlation model. Through chip detection, it can achieve quantitative prediction of the estimated breeding value of the target trait genome. Researchers can identify germplasm with both low cadmium and excellent agronomic traits in advance during the wheat seedling stage, turning complex trait identification into one-click output, significantly improving decision-making efficiency and accuracy.
Liao Xiaoyong, chief scientist of the project and researcher at the Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, said that the research and development and application of this chip can help my country's low-cadmium wheat variety selection to leapfrog from traditional methods to high-efficiency and intelligent methods, provide strong technical support for my country's targeted wheat variety selection and efficient resource utilization, and ensure national food security and green and healthy production.
At present, "Low Cadmium No. 1" has completed the transformation of technological achievements and can meet the testing needs of large-scale wheat samples, laying a solid foundation for subsequent industrial applications.
