1957 teacher Wang Yinglai won the job of teacher Zhou Guangyu in order to make up for the shortage of microbiology professionals in the Institute of Biochemistry. After she went to the Institute of Biochemistry, she made full use of biochemical theory and technology to guide the exploration of fermentation production research. It took less than a year to complete the fermentation research of "methylene succinic acid". Then, by consulting foreign literature, she investigated the current situation of "glutamic acid fermentation" (monosodium glutamate) in China, and found that monosodium glutamate was produced by glutamic acid fermentation in Japan at that time, with low cost and considerable competitiveness in the international market. At that time, the production of monosodium glutamate in China was still using hydrochloric acid to hydrolyze gluten, which not only had high production cost and low output, but also had particularly poor working conditions. Because workers are exposed to hydrochloric acid gas for a long time, their health is greatly threatened, especially China's "bergamot" brand monosodium glutamate will lose its advantage in the international market. At that time, under the situation of the Great Leap Forward in China, how to solve the problem of "too much food"? Zhou Guangyu decided to carry out the research on "glutamic acid fermentation". When there were no strains in fermentation, she cooperated with the Biology Department of Peking University to mobilize students to collect samples and isolate strains, establish a qualitative analysis method of glutamic acid, and obtain strains for fermentation experiments through a large number of strains screening. She organized cooperative research with researchers from Shanghai Chutian MSG Factory and Shanghai Light Industry Research Institute. Through the painstaking study of fermentation conditions, the qualitative and quantitative analysis of glutamic acid in fermentation broth and the separation technology of glutamic acid in fermentation broth were established.
At that time, her research obtained the highest level of glutamic acid production in shaking bottles in the world at that time, which indicated that glutamic acid fermentation in China reached the level of large-scale industrial production of monosodium glutamate and promoted the industrial production of monosodium glutamate in China. At the same time, it also trained a group of scientific researchers for our country and laid a solid foundation for the monosodium glutamate fermentation industry in the 1960 s. Therefore, on 1959, Zhou Guangyu was rated as the first national "March 8" red flag bearer, and 1959 glutamic acid fermentation paper was rated as an excellent paper in Shanghai. 1978 "glutamic acid fermentation" was awarded the major achievement award by China Academy of Sciences and Shanghai Municipality.
In the early 1960s, China suffered three years of natural disasters, and Zhou Guangyu realized more deeply than in the past that agriculture is the foundation of China's national economy. Traditional agricultural breeding techniques can no longer meet the requirements of improving crop yield and quality, and new breeding techniques are urgently needed. In the early 1970s, microbial genetic engineering appeared in the world. Although the research on higher organisms has not yet begun, she has realized that when molecular biology develops to the emergence of genetic engineering, plant breeding may enter the era of combining agricultural breeding with molecular biology after natural selection, cross breeding and distant hybridization. It can not only break the barrier of sexual hybridization, but also combine genes or synthetic genes from any organism, widely expand the gene pool, open up new ways for agricultural directional breeding and March into agricultural modernization. At that time, it was very difficult to carry out genetic engineering research in China from the technical operation and equipment. She believes that if we focus on following foreign literature and simply develop genetic engineering research topics, it will be very expensive and limited by the lack of effective genes and their expression elements, it will be difficult to achieve the expected production benefits. She pointed out that the research route we started was contrary to the literature, and we should first develop productive molecular breeding results, and then carry out effective gene identification, isolation and recombination research. This may solve the problem of the source of beneficial genes, and may be combined with genetic engineering to freely develop molecular breeding to achieve the purpose of large-scale expansion of production, but where to start the research?
In order to realize the idea of agricultural molecular breeding, Zhou Guangyu began an investigation on agricultural breeding in 1974, focusing on the successful distant hybridization of food crops in China, such as corn rice, sorghum rice and bamboo rice. It has long been known that the chromosome structure between distant relatives is generally incompatible, that is, this kind of hybridization will not succeed. But why are there so many successful distant hybridization crops in China? In order to find out this problem, she went to agricultural universities and academy of agricultural sciences in Guangdong, Guangxi, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Jilin, Hunan, Liaoning, Beijing and other places to consult and discuss with breeders and geneticists and learn from farmers with practical breeding experience. She also visited the breeding base in Hainan Island and personally operated cross breeding under the scorching sun.
Based on the investigation and practice of distant hybridization, she analyzed and summarized a phenomenon of distant hybridization from the perspective of molecular biology (that is, the ratio of offspring to female parent is stable and the variation is small, and the number, size and shape of chromosomes are the same as that of female parent under optical microscope, but the phenotypic variation can be inherited), and put forward the theory of DNA fragment hybridization, which holds that although the chromosome structure between distant relatives is incompatible as a whole, from the perspective of evolution, the structure of some genes may remain certain. When the genome of distant pollen enters the mother (recipient), some DNA fragments (genes or regulatory sequences) may be integrated into the recipient chromosome, causing genetic variation in future generations. This variation caused by introducing foreign DNA fragments (genes) into another plant is actually natural genetic engineering. Because the foreign DNA fragment integrated into the chromosome is very small, the difference of chromosome morphology and structure caused by DNA fragment insertion can not be seen under the optical microscope. Because only a few foreign DNA fragments can be inserted into the chromosome, the phenotype of the offspring is basically the same as that of the recipient mother, and only a few traits will cause variation.
When her DNA fragment hybridization theory was put forward, it was strongly opposed by a few authoritative scholars in the genetic school at that time because it was unknown, and it was considered that it did not conform to the law of genetic breeding. There are also a few authoritative people in science and technology who express their opinions without studying the facts of molecular breeding, and the development of plant molecular breeding has encountered great resistance. But Zhou Guangyu firmly believes that facts always speak louder than words. She wants to speak with scientific facts.
Because genetic engineering is the integration of DNA fragments (genes), studying the hypothesis of DNA fragment hybridization in distant hybridization became the theoretical basis for introducing DNA into plants and conducting molecular breeding at that time. To this end, she designed and led the experimental verification. The research group led by her cooperated with relevant units to analyze the esterase isozyme of distant hybrid sorghum rice, which proved that there were esterase from distant parent sorghum in sorghum rice. By crossing sorghum-specific DNA with sorghum rice as a probe, it is proved that there is indeed DNA integration from sorghum in sorghum rice. In the study of the renaturation kinetics of repetitive DNA, it was proved that the obvious change of renaturation kinetics of sorghum rice was caused by the insertion of sorghum repetitive sequences into rice. These research results are published in the paper, which provide strong data support for DNA fragment hybridization theory and theoretical and design basis for her plant molecular breeding technology.
The design idea of plant molecular breeding technology (introduction of exogenous DNA into plants) is the breeding technology of simulated pollination and hybridization. It is designed as a fragment with special characteristics of the donor's total DNA, which makes the DNA enter the embryo sac along the pollen tube channel within a certain time after the self-pollination of the recipient, and transforms the fertilized egg and its cells before and after. Because these cells have no normal cell wall, they can be regarded as natural protoplasts and are easy to integrate with DNA. She and researchers from Jiangsu Academy of Agricultural Sciences first established a technical method system for transforming pollen channels into DNA (genes) on cotton. The research group led by her used 3[H]-DNA to introduce pollinated cotton, which proved that DNA can really reach embryo sac directly through pollen tube channel. Introducing M 13(mp7)DNA into cotton proved the integration of M 13(mp7)DNA in cotton embryo. The kanamycin resistance gene was introduced into rice for expression. These fully prove the feasibility of the design. Plant molecular breeding technology was first successfully applied to cotton, and many mutant offspring and economically valuable offspring were obtained.
From 65438 to 0983, Zhou Guangyu published an internationally leading technical paper on plant molecular breeding in the authoritative American magazine MethodsinEnzymology, which attracted academic attention. This technology has been widely verified in theory and applied in breeding at home and abroad. Zhou Guangyu was invited to give lectures at universities and scientific research institutions in the United States, Europe, Asia 10 countries for more than 50 times, and gave lectures at international academic seminars at home and abroad 18 times.
In order to promote the development of plant molecular breeding in China, Zhou Guangyu held three national academic seminars on plant molecular breeding in Dezhou, Shandong Province in May 1988, Shanghai in February 1965438 and Changsha in May 1994, with nearly 500 participants. Under the guidance of her theory and method, under her promotion, this technology has been widely verified and applied in China. For example, the GUS gene was successfully transformed into wheat by the Institute of Genetics and Development of China Academy of Sciences; Bt toxin gene of China Academy of Agricultural Sciences transformed cotton to obtain insect-resistant effect; Heilongjiang Academy of Agricultural Sciences introduced wild soybean DNA into cultivated soybean, and cultivated excellent soybean strains with high protein and early maturity. Jilin Academy of Agricultural Sciences cultivated soybean mosaic resistant strains; Jiangsu Academy of Agricultural Sciences and Hunan Agricultural University have cultivated new varieties with high yield, high quality, stress resistance, Fusarium wilt resistance and verticillium wilt resistance. Guangxi Academy of Agricultural Sciences introduced medicinal wild rice DNA into cultivated rice and bred a new variety of glutinous rice. At present, nearly 100 laboratories in China have adopted this technology and achieved ideal results on more than 40 kinds of plants such as rice, wheat, cotton, beans, vegetables, sugarcane and trees.
From 65438 to 0988, the research groups of Cornell University and Max Planck Institute of Plant Breeding in West Germany published papers respectively, which repeatedly verified the molecular breeding technology created by Zhou.
1994 At the 4th International Conference on Plant Molecular Biology held in the Netherlands, it was reported that the plant department of Tel-Ariv University in Israel cooperated with Max Planck Institute of Plant Breeding in Germany to transform NPT and Bar genes into 12 spring wheat through pollen tube pathway transgenic technology, and the transformation rate was as high as 6%.
1986, the plant molecular breeding technology created by Zhou Guangyu was fully affirmed at the college (department) level appraisal meeting co-chaired by the Science and Technology Cooperation Bureau of Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Ministry of Agriculture, Animal Husbandry and Fisheries. Experts attending the meeting agreed that "this technology provides a good experimental system for studying exogenous gene introduction and a new technology for expanding the range of plant variation." In breeding, this is a new way with application value. "