The 9th Plant Protection Auditorium was successfully held in National Center for Agricultural Biosecurity Sciences on 23 January, 2017. This Auditorium invited Academician WAN Jianmin, Chinese Academy of Engineering. The topic of his presentation was Cloning of important rice genes and the utilization in breeding programs. The Auditorium was chaired by DG ZHOU Xueping. DDGs ZHANG Bujiang, QIU Dewen, ZHENG Yongquan, ZHANG Jie and SHEN Yinshu were present at the Auditorium.

Targeting at problems, such as low fertility, low seed setting rate, tall plants, lodging, etc., in indica-japonica hybrids, Academician WAN Jianmin led his team successfully cracked the difficulty in utilization of indica-japonica hybrids after more than 20 years’ work. First, they mined 17 sterile loci and wide compatibility genes, developed the corresponding molecular markers to pyramid wide compatibility genes and created restoring lines with wide compatibility. The setting percentage of the indica-japonica hybrids was stabilized at over 85%. This solved effectively the problem of semi-sterile in indica-japonica hybrids. Secondly, WAN proposed a method of molecular designing based on photoperiod sensitive gene and photo period insensitive gene and obtained indica-japonica new combinations with ideal maturity and therefore settled the problem of transgressive late maturing in indica-japonica hybrids. Thirdly, WAN, etc., mined dominant dwarf genes and semi-dominant genes conferring plant shape. D53, a semi-dominant dwarf gene, was cloned and the mechanism of function for this gene to confer plant shape was clarified. APC/CTE, a key gene that confers plant shape, was cloned, the mechanisms of action defined, and molecular markers developed. These results laid basis for the breeding of indica-japonica hybrids with good plant shape. In order to tackle the problems of rice diseases and insect pests, WAN and his team collaborated with other institutions and implemented the following work. They established a large scale technical system for identification of rice stripe disease and a technical system for breeding for rice stripe and plant hopper resistance. Such, they bred a series of varieties that are resistant to rice stripe and realized the rapid adoption of the technical systems in southern japonica rice areas. This is an effective relief to the damage caused by rice stripe disease in southern rice areas. Besides, WAN and his team mined germplasm resources with resistance against rice plant hopper. The bred rice new cultivars via molecular breeding technology were of high yield, good quality and resistant to rice plant hopper. This settled the problem of damage caused by rice plant hopper. WAN’s presentation was rich in content and the presentation was attractive. He explained the profound in simple terms and answered questions raised by scientists and graduates on site. The presentation and the masterly answers received rounds of applause.

DG ZHOU Xueping expressed his gratitude to Academician WAN and his wonderful presentation and extended his congratulations to WAN’s excellent work in rice molecular breeding over time. DG ZHOU emphasized that research staff in IPP should learn from Academician WAN to stand from the agricultural production and find problems in production and resolved bottleneck problems restricting agricultural production after exploration. DG ZHOU issued certificate of the Auditorium to Academician WAN.

More than 160 people including chief scientists of innovation teams, chiefs of administration departments, core scientists and graduates were present at the Auditorium.