On February 27th, in the heart of the East Lake Scientific City in Wuhan's Optics Valley Science Island, construction commenced on the National Crop Phenotyping Research Major Scientific and Technological Infrastructure, also known as the "Divine Farmer Facility" project.
"This marks an exhilarating moment in the agricultural field, as numerous scientists have worked tirelessly from the 'Twelfth Five-Year Plan' to the 'Fourteenth Five-Year Plan' to finally realize this envisioned project. The Divine Farmer Facility is emerging from the drawing board and is on the brink of becoming a reality," stated Yang Weicai, Chief Scientist of the project and Academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.
Seeds are the heart of agriculture, acting as the core driver for its advancement. However, China's soybean and maize yields are far below advanced levels, while vegetables like potatoes, carrots, and broccoli, especially high-end varieties, heavily rely on imports.
The root cause lies in the technological bottleneck of our breeding germplasm resources.
To date, agricultural breeding has gone through four eras: domestication breeding, hybrid breeding, molecular marker-assisted breeding, and molecular design breeding. Over the past 20 years, China has completed the sequencing of over 70% of important crop genomes, laying the foundation for cutting-edge molecular design breeding technologies.
However, as the saying goes, "As the orange is to the south of the Huai River, it is an orange; but to the north of the Huai River, it is a tangerine." Crop traits depend on the interaction between genes and the environment. The complex relationship between genes, environment, and phenotype remains a limiting factor in molecular design breeding and improving breeding efficiency.
"As the most important trait of plants, the study of plant phenotypes has made little progress for a long time. Even at the beginning of this century, it was at a very primitive level. Merely relying on visual observation, at most measuring with a ruler or weighing on a scale, that was all." said Zhang Qifa, academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and professor at Huazhong Agricultural University.
Zhang explained that the concept of phenomics emerged in the early 21st century, allowing plant traits to be described using genomic concepts. After more than a decade of effort, China has established a complete set of crop phenomics technology platforms in Wuhan, which has been successfully applied in crops such as rice, rapeseed, and maize, greatly promoting life science research.
How can we comprehensively break through the bottleneck of germplasm resources and win the battle of transformation in the seed industry?
Cutting-edge "combat equipment" is crucial. "Although China has long had ideas in phenomics, limited facilities and equipment have made it difficult to collect and integrate multidimensional data," said Yang Weicai. Building large-scale, high-throughput, high-precision, open and shared crop phenotyping research facilities is imperative.
With the rapid development of emerging disciplines such as systems biology and computational biology since the beginning of this century, the Institute of Genetics and Developmental Biology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (hereinafter referred to as the Institute of Genetics and Developmental Biology) has proposed the construction of a major infrastructure for high-throughput genotype-phenotype identification in the agricultural field, aiming at major scientific and technological issues for sustainable agricultural development.
Thus, the Shen Nong Facility was born. "China is an agricultural giant, and in mythology, the Five Grains were discovered and domesticated by Shen Nong. Naming a major scientific facility 'Shen Nong' expresses scientists' expectations for it to break through the key core technologies of crop breeding," Yang Weicai said.
The Shen Nong Facility, as a national major scientific infrastructure, can carry out identification and analysis of important traits and characteristics such as plant shape, yield, drought resistance, cold resistance, insect resistance, salt tolerance, nutrient utilization, and photosynthesis for different crops. It has the capability to collect and analyze major data related to genotype and phenotype for main grain and cash crops, support the advancement of molecular design breeding technology, and will become an "accelerator" for the efficient breeding of crops.
"The Shen Nong Facility can accurately analyze the correlation between genotype and phenotype, matching the phenotype of crops with tens of thousands of genes one by one. Through digital intelligent breeding, precise genetic manipulation is achieved, shortening the breeding time by half," Yang Weicai said. Traditional breeding usually takes 7 to 8 years to cultivate a single seed, while breeding through the Shen Nong Facility only takes 3 to 4 years.
The surrounding environment of the Shennong Experimental Station. Captured by Yang Jungge from the Institute of Genetics and Developmental Biology.
The Shen Nong Facility is set to rise from the red soil of the Optics Valley Science Island.
Dubbed as the "Intelligent Breeding" enabled by Big Data Navigation
The Shen Nong Facility comprises five major systems: Phenotypic Data Collection System, Environmental Simulation System, Multi-Omics Analysis System, Intelligent Big Data Analytics System, and Genetic Manipulation System. Among these, the Environmental Simulation System features six independent environmental simulation subsystems based on crucial environmental factors for crop growth such as light, temperature, water, soil, diseases, and pests.
"The Shen Nong Facility will be the world's largest center for in-depth analysis of genotype and phenotype, enabling molecular breeding through standardized cultivation of crops under controlled environmental conditions and real-time, precise, and repeatable data collection. By applying big data analytics, we aim to rapidly establish the correlation between crop genotype and phenotype, making molecular breeding possible and propelling the leapfrog development of life sciences and modern agriculture," said Chinese Academy of Sciences Academician Li Jiayang.
In terms of scientific objectives, the Shen Nong Facility will comprehensively utilize modern omics technologies and genetic manipulation techniques to develop environmental simulation and intelligent monitoring technologies, high-resolution imaging technologies, automated information collection and analysis technologies, etc. The goal is to decipher the complex relationship between genotype and phenotype of important crops (mainly staple crops, medicinal plants, economic crops, etc.), establish a modern genetic theory system determining plant phenotypes, and achieve molecular design and efficient breeding of superior crop varieties.
In terms of engineering goals, the facility will create an integrated research platform including standardized crop cultivation, precise simulation of artificial environments, high-throughput multidimensional phenotype data collection, intelligent pattern recognition, multidimensional omics (genomics, proteomics, epigenomics, metabolomics, etc.) analysis, big data management, and Internet of Things technologies.
Project Chief Engineer Chen Fan stated that the Shen Nong Facility can intelligently identify genetic differences between varieties, ensure the accuracy of gene editing, and achieve high-throughput analysis using intelligent big data systems. It will deeply associate crop phenotypes with genotypes, akin to the "Beidou Satellite Navigation System," providing rapid navigation for breeding paths among vast genetic data. The facility employs "AI+BT+DT" (Artificial Intelligence + Biotechnology + Big Data Technology) to realize precise design and intelligent manufacturing of seeds.
He illustrated that regional differences in agriculture are significant, influenced by factors like altitude, latitude, etc., resulting in varying crop growth conditions. The facility's six independent environmental simulation subsystems can achieve precise cultivation of a variety of crops in smart controllable environments using fully automated systems. This enables high-throughput collection and analysis of multi-dimensional phenotypes throughout the entire growth period, facilitating tailored solutions to suit local cultivation conditions. This approach ensures high yields of high-quality grains while meeting specific demands for future healthy foods.
The Shen Nong Facility will primarily focus on independent research and development, with a self-sufficiency rate of over 90% in equipment. It will leverage China's integrated innovative advantages in crop complex trait analysis, artificial intelligence image recognition, and big data breeding to promote the in-depth application and cross-fertilization of high-tech in agriculture and life sciences.
"We will integrate equipment development with scientific problem-solving, achieving cross-innovation between science and engineering, and providing important technological support for the era of 'AI' breeding 5.0," stated Chen Fan.
On February 27th, the construction of the Shen Nong Facility commenced, with excavators on-site poised to break ground. (Photo by Yang Jungé, Genetics and Developmental Biology Institute)
Driving "Innovative Fission" with Major Scientific Projects
The Shen Nong Facility, touted as a "national treasure," spans nearly 800 acres in its planned layout, with its location in Hubei being the result of various considerations including natural geography and talent base.
Hubei, situated in the transitional zone between subtropical and temperate climates, is conducive to the growth of most crops in China, thereby reducing environmental energy consumption and costs. Wuhan, as a key city in the central urban agglomeration of the Yangtze River Economic Belt, enjoys a strategic position as the "thoroughfare of nine provinces," and holds significant national agricultural science and technology strategic importance. It also serves as a crucial hub for science and education, providing intellectual support for the construction of major scientific facilities.
"The Shen Nong Facility will fill a major gap in China's agricultural infrastructure, promote the transformation and upgrading of modern agriculture, and elevate the level of life science research and international competitiveness in China," said Xing Xuerong, the project's overall commander and Secretary of the Party Committee and Deputy Director of the Genetics and Developmental Biology Institute, to the China Science Daily. "We also hope to use the construction of this major scientific project to drive the establishment of regional science and technology innovation centers, promote the deep integration of innovation chains, industrial chains, and talent chains, stimulate innovative fission, and lead the development of the biological breeding industry in the Yangtze River Economic Belt."
Yang Weicai noted that as a highly intelligent and automated large-scale scientific facility with independent intellectual property rights, it is foreseeable that the Shen Nong Facility will face many difficulties and challenges during its construction. He hopes that inspired by the spirit of the sage Shen Nong, who "cared for the people and dared to be the first," we can gather the wisdom of experts in science, technology, engineering, and management, overcome difficulties, and innovate collaboratively, thus activating the driving force for the core technological transformation of breeding in China.
