2024-09-09 16:46:33
HOHHOTChinese researchers have begun breeding experiments on 66,500 potato seeds that were carried into space aboard the Shenzhou-16 manned spacecraft and remained there for more than 180 days.
After germination, cultivation and transplanting, superior seed varieties will be selected and further evaluated, said Zhang Linhai, director of the technological innovation center of Xisen Potato Industry Co., Ltd., which is in charge of the task.
Space breeding refers to the exposure of seeds or strains to cosmic radiation and microgravity in space to mutate their genes, in order to create new species or varieties with improved performance, such as shorter growth period, higher yield and improved disease resistance.
Researchers at the center, located in Shangdu County of northern China’s Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, plan to breed potato varieties with salt and alkali tolerance and higher yields through experiments using advanced gene-editing technology to assist traditional breeding.
This approach has the potential to reduce the breeding cycle from more than a decade to just a few years, Zhang said.
This is the second time that Xisen Potato Industry Co., Ltd. has sent seeds into space. In June 2022, the company selected 20,000 seeds that were transported to the Chinese space station by the Shenzhou-14 spacecraft and brought back to Earth 182 days later.
China first sent seeds into space in 1987.
The transportation of rice and pepper seeds marked the beginning of the country’s space improvement program.
Over the past three-plus decades, China has conducted more than 30 such space experiments with plant seeds, seedlings and strains, resulting in the cultivation of nearly 1,000 new varieties.