Abstract:Hybrid rice is a cross between two rice varieties, and their offspring have heterosis and do not belong to transgenic. Transgenesis is the transfer of genes from one species to the genome of another. China was the first country in the world to successfully develop and promote hybrid rice, solving the food crisis of a large number of people. At present, in addition to insect-resistant cotton, other important crop genetically modified varieties have not been approved for promotion and application in China.
Hybrid rice is not genetically modified, that's for sure. We know:
Hybrid rice refers to the selection of two rice varieties that have certain genetic differences and their excellent traits can complement each other for crossing, and the production of the first generation of hybrids with heterosis, that is, hybrid rice. Generally speaking, hybrid rice only refers to the first generation of hybrids formed after the crossing of sterile lines and restorer lines, and the hybrid offspring appear trait separation, and the seeds of the hybrid generation can not be retained, so they need to be produced every year, and the hybrid rice corresponds to the conventional rice, and the conventional rice offspring can retain the excellent traits of the parents, and the seeds can be retained.
Transgenic is to transfer the genes of one species to the genome of another species through modern scientific and technological means, for example, insect-resistant crops are to transfer the insecticidal crystal protein gene of Bacillus thuringiensis to the genome of cotton, corn, rice and other crops, so that they also have insect-resistant traits, and the gene is a nucleic acid molecule with biological functions.
The theory of the utilization of rice hybrid advantage was first put forward by American scientists in the sixties of the last century, but rice is a self-pollinating crop, its flowers are very small, and a flower only bears one seed, and it is impossible to rely on artificial pollination for industrialization. In November 1970, members of the scientific research team led by Yuan Longping discovered a male abortion plant in the common wild rice community on Hainan Island, which opened a breakthrough in hybrid rice research. Subsequently, he used varieties such as Square Dwarf and Jingyin 66 to measure and found that they had the ability to maintain wild sterile plants, which opened a breakthrough for the cultivation of rice sterile lines and the subsequent "three lines" matching, and brought a new turning point to the research of hybrid rice. China was the first country in the world to successfully develop and promote hybrid rice, and now hybrid rice has been widely used in Southeast Asia and Africa, solving the food crisis of many people. Because of Academician Yuan Longping's significant contribution to the application of hybrid rice, he was revered as the father of hybrid rice and won the Meritorious Service Medal of the Republic.
Genetically modified technology began to be applied to the pharmaceutical field in 1982 and to the food industry in 1989. In the early 90s of the 20th century, the first genetically modified food on the market appeared in the United States, which is a fresh-keeping tomato. Now in the United States, Canada and other places genetically modified soybeans, corn, cotton, rape, etc. have been widely used, our country's scientific researchers are also actively carrying out relevant research, but at present, in addition to insect-resistant cotton, rice, corn, soybean, rape and other important grain, oil crops genetically modified varieties, has not been approved for popularization.