On Nov 2, the Innovation Team of Soil-Plant Interactions of the Institute of Agricultural Resources and Regional Planning (IARRP) of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences (CAAS) published a Correspondence article titled "Crop yields: speed delivery of promising genes" in the internationally renowned journal "Nature". The article emphasizes the need to accelerate the process of releasing promising genes with significant application potential.

In recent years, there has been an increasing number of reports on significantly increasing crop yields through the regulation of single genes. Recently, scholars published a commentary in "Nature" and proposed five criteria for experimental design and publication of papers on yield enhancement by single genes (Khaipho-Burch et al. Nature 621, 470-473). One of these criteria is the direct comparison of the gene's application in commercial pipelines with elite commercial varieties in yield tests. However, this criterion is difficult for scientists to achieve. Scientists in the field of basic research not only have difficulty accessing commercially mainstream breeding materials, but also many commercially available varieties are not fully genetically transformed, requiring years of backcrossing and extensive field testing. This process undoubtedly delays the public process of genes by several years.

Therefore, the authors propose that governments, research institutions, and breeding companies should strengthen collaboration. Scientists should identify and evaluate genes with significant application potential, while breeding companies should assess the effectiveness of these genes in breeding and agricultural production using strict standards. This will expedite the application of important genes in breeding systems.

Ph.D. student Zhang Guan from the IARRP is the first author of the article, and researcher Wu Qingyu from the Innovation Team of Soil-Plant Interactions is the corresponding author.