Our scientists have recovered the "lost" wild corn gene, which can significantly increase its protein content.

According to information from IT House 3 June, Xinhua reported today that the Chinese Academy of Sciences ' Centre for Excellence in Molecular Plant Science, Team Yushui Wang Hai, together with the Wang Wenqin team of Shanghai Teacher Training University and the Huang Yong Cai team of Sichuan Agricultural University, successfully cloned the second high-protein primary gene THP3-T from wild corn, which was published online on 3 June, Beijing time.

Corn is the country's first food crop and the indispensable “King of Feeds” in livestock farming. However, due to the general low protein content of our main corn-planted varieties, animal feed has long been heavily dependent on imported soybeans as a source of protein supplementation. Our soybeans are estimated to import more than 100 million tons per year, with an external dependency of more than 80 per cent, and the cultivation of high-protein corn is considered an important route to alleviate this structural contradiction.

According to the research team, the protein content of wild maize can be as high as 30 per cent, yet most of the excellent genes associated with high proteins have been lost during the more than 9000 years of modern maize domestication and modern breeding, resulting in a general tumulturing of around 8 per cent of the current protein content of hybrid maize.

As early as 2012, the voodoo ingenuity researcher was involved in studies that raised the protein content of maize. After a decade of effort, the team pioneered the first high-protein gene THP9-T from wild corn in 2022, resulting in an initial increase in the protein content of the primary maize species. The successful cloning of THP3-T further completes the “key puzzle” of high-protein maize breeding.

The THP3-T coded agryrazine-acrylate transramase 1 was found to be the core enzyme in the nitrogen metabolic route. The gene is a significant increase in maize seed grains and overall protein content, mainly by enhancing nitrogen assimilation capacity, without affecting production. Group genetic analysis shows that the frequency of THP3-T in modern maize varieties is only 2.1 per cent, very rare. When the research team combined THP3-T with the found THP9-T, the two genes showed significant synergies, and the results of the experiment showed an increase from 10% to 15% of the self-confined corn seed particle protein content.

At the practical breeding application level, the team imported these two high-protein genes into the country's most popular corn hybrid, Zheng Zheng 958, successfully increasing its seed particle protein content from 8.5 per cent to 12 per cent to 13 per cent, and its entire protein content from 7 per cent to more than 9 per cent, with steady production.

According to team estimates, for every 1 percentage point increase in the level of corn protein we feed, the increase in the total protein can be an equivalent replacement for 8 million tons of imported soybeans; for every country, the amount of maize protein rises from 8 per cent to more than 12 per cent, it can reduce imports of soybeans by about 30 million tons per year, or about 30 per cent of the current total imports.

At present, the team has refined the prostheses of more than 80 domestic maize main plant varieties, using molecular markers to assist in breeding, which can be increased to more than 14 per cent.

In addition, a value assessment of feed from authoritative institutions shows that high-protein maize not only partially replaces imported bean bean bean, but also promises to improve the taste of livestock products such as eggs and pork. The research team has revealed that there are now contracts with new hope, pastoral and other farming enterprises to promote the industrialization of the results.

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