Unexpected record of cotton of thousand grains

Creating a multi-grain cotton variety is the target of agronomists and creating a pure rice variety with thousands of seeds per cotton is the dream of many scientists not only in Vietnam but also in the world. Many people have dedicated their lives to research but have not been successful. But now, Vietnam has made that dream come true.

We have just had access to the superior rice line named BN Mới , a pure rice strain. Each New rice paddy is 35cm long on average, 800-1,000 seeds, 3-5 times more than current advanced rice varieties. The author of this rice strain is Dr. Tran Dang Khanh (born in 1978 in Bat Xat, Lao Cai province), working at the Vietnam Institute of Agricultural Genetics.

Interestingly, the problem of creating high-yielding dwarf rice varieties was born by his father, Dr. Tran Dang Khanh, a high school teacher Tran Dang Dat, who has been interested since 1985, when Khanh was only 7 years old. For many reasons and also the fate of the family, after having achieved initial results, he left this issue for the children to continue studying. Khanh graduated from the Faculty of English, Hanoi University of Foreign Languages ​​in 1999. In 2001, he went to Japan to study Biotechnology at Miyazaki University.

In 2004, Khanh earned a master's degree in Biotechnology at Miyazaki University, then went to Korea as a PhD student, in 2008 successfully defended his thesis at Konkuk University, Seoul. Received scholarship, Khanh returned to Japan by the Japan Young Talent Support Fund, completed the post-TS program at Ryukyu University, Okinawa in October 2010. Dr. Tran Dang Khanh has 18 independent research projects and 23 co-authors published in international scientific journals, voted as a typical researcher of the year by the Korea Crop Science Association. 2007.

With the results achieved in the learning process, Dr. Tran Dang Khanh was invited to stay in Japan to continue studying but the love of the homeland and the appointment with the still-promising project of the father, he returned to Vietnam. Shortly thereafter, he was registered and assigned to undertake a State-level project, to create super-superior rice varieties with a yield of 10-12 tons / ha / crop. The experience of his father developed 'suddenly' . In just one year, Dr. Tran Dang Khanh created three new super-superior rice lines by the method of mutation on the original rice variety . The old Moc Tuyen rice variety can only be cultivated, 120cm tall, one cotton has 90-100 seeds, Khanh produces Moc Tuyen variety of super-double-grown, 80-90cm high, one cotton has 150-180 seeds, yield 90% increase.

From Bao Thai variety, rice is good but only one crop can be grown, suitable for midland and mountainous areas, 120-130cm tall trees, each cotton has 90-110 seeds, growing time is 122-125 days, Khanh forms Bao The new pregnancy is super dwarf, transplanting two crops in both lowland and highland areas, growing time is 100-105 days, cotton has 150-180 seeds, productivity increases 50-60%. In the Spring crop in 2012, applying the technology of creating double hybrid rice in the hybrid direction, from the original 4 combinations to create hybrids and mutation, Khanh created the rice variety BN Moi, each has 800-1,000 seeds, yield of 10-12 tons / ha / crop, inherited (old BN is high yielding rice variety, each has 380 seeds, yield 7.5 tons / ha / crop).

Khanh sent the new BN to grow at Nagoya University, Japan, gaining 1,100 grains of rice. With this result, Tran Dang Khanh will definitely complete the project 3 years in advance. Usually, it takes tens of years to create a single hybrid, create a double hybrid and domesticate it, it takes a few dozen years to see the value of the mutation method that Tran Dang Dat and the teacher The youngest child is holding the secret.

In early June 2012, Associate Prof. Dr. Tran Dang Xuan and Prof. Makoto Matsuoka and Prof. Hidera Kitano of Nagoya University, Japan, two leading experts on molecular biology application, mutation and research on rice genes Increasing productivity visited the rice field of BN Mo experiment at the Center for Science and Technology Transfer and Agricultural Extension of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development in Thanh Tri, Hanoi. The two men were very surprised and delighted at the result of creating so much grain cotton.

Explain this phenomenon, Professor Matsuoka said, this may be a new gene. In the world, there are only 3 places that can produce cotton varieties with more than 600 seeds: Prof. Kitano of Japan spent more than 20 years to create each cotton variety more than 600 seeds by gathering good genes such as high yield, soft rice aromatic, quite disease resistant . of many varieties into one variety. These good properties are sometimes difficult to maintain in a long term. The Chinese also produced more than 600 seeds of cotton. Meanwhile, Dr. Tran Dang Khanh of Vietnam created cotton lines with 800-1,000 seeds in one crop, from a high-yield rice variety.

Working with us, Assoc.Prof.Dr., Deputy Director of the Vietnam Institute of Agricultural Genetics Dang Trong Luong stated that, if successful, stabilizing the superior characteristics, making mass production, the rice variety BN Moi will be a 'mutant' and the technology of creating this rice line is a significant breakthrough of agricultural science, it is possible to call Newcomer a 'super high-yield' variety . Currently, the average rice yield of Vietnam is about 5.5 tons / ha / crop, if being raised 7, 8, 10 tons or higher, it has great significance for national food security, delete poverty reduction and exports enrich the country.

Tran Dang Khanh is working with leading experts from Japan and Vietnam to determine whether the trait of the outstanding number of grain lines is due to any independent gene or gene segment among the 12 chromosomes. of the rice plant, decide which position it is to clone that independent gene or gene segment to be published scientifically. After determining exactly how to apply molecular and hybrid indicator technology to gather that gene into a variety in about 1-2 years, put it into commercial cultivation to confirm it is a new variety.

Khanh said, the secret of his success, only after one case has created new high-yielding pure rice varieties thanks to the method of point mutation, the right effect on the gene that defines the trait to be developed but remains the same. Good characteristics of original varieties such as rice quality, adaptability, pest and disease resistance, extreme weather .

Looking at the working conditions of the young scientist, I couldn't help but feel sad. In the crop of 2012, Tran Dang Khanh sowed more than 1 acre of experimental rice at the Center for Science, Technology and Agricultural Promotion and Transfer of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development. The rice field is carefully protected, but the steel fence is cut, the door is broken. In the Spring 2013 crop, Khanh hired more than 1,500m of ² fields in the suburbs, sowed more than 100 tested rice varieties, each with only a few dozen square meters right next to the road, without barriers. On May 24, we visited this rice field. Looking at the rice fields where the high places are low, the dwarf rice plants are short, the flowers are long and full of seeds, anyone can know that this is an experimental rice field, who wants to snatch a few flowers.

Khanh said, on May 22, Prof. Dr. Tran Duy Quy, former Director of the Institute of Agricultural Genetics, is currently advising the Ministry of Science and Technology KC-06 to visit the field, randomly counting one BN seed rice yielded 1,027 seeds, just as the new BN of Khanh experimented in Nagoya Japan. With such working conditions, the possibility of a rice variety tested by this young scientist is possible. Although the secret to creating super-short rice lines from the original varieties is only the father and son can grasp, but in the current environment of Vietnam, the way to manage such research results is difficult to accept, easily leading to copyright dispute status. Khanh intends to soon send the trial to assess the morphology and characteristics of the rice plant, then multiply the area continuously in three crops to 500ha to be recognized as the original variety.

Viet Duong