Scientists breed new rice variety with ion beam technology

A research team led by Prof. WU Yuejin from the Institute of Intelligent Machines of the Hefei Institutes of Physical Science (HFIPS) bred a rice variety with ion beam breeding technology.

The variety Zhongkejing No. 5, in which "Zhongke" means the Chinese Academy of Science in Chinese, was tailor-made for the advantageous production areas of glutinous rice in Anhui province. Characterized by early maturity, strong resistance, and high nitrogen fertilizer utilization efficiency, it has passed the regional appraisal test in Anhui province and received support from the local government.

"We have been focusing on Ion Beam Bioengineering for decades. It will help to alleviate the shortage of good varieties of glutinous rice," said Dr. LIU Binmei, breeder of the rice variety.

The team applied the ion beam mutagenesis in crop breeding to promote the development of molecular breeding. With high targeting efficiency and wide mutation spectrum, this technology has showed obvious advantages in the creation of germplasm resources.

In China, more than 100 new varieties such as rice, wheat and corn have been bred with the help of ion beams by 2020, making important contributions to the advancement of agricultural science and technology.