《1 Engineering research fronts》

1 Engineering research fronts

《1.1 Trends in Top 10 engineering research fronts》

1.1 Trends in Top 10 engineering research fronts

The Top 10 engineering research fronts in the agriculture field can be classified into three groups: ① research on the molecular biological mechanism of animal and plant production, including “genetic and molecular basis of animal high-yield and high-quality traits”, “molecular biological mechanism of heterosis in crops”, “hybrid breeding of aquatic animals and its molecular mechanism”, and “molecular mechanism of horticultural crops in response to abiotic stresses”; ② research on environmental ecology and artificial intelligence, including “cross-species transmission mechanism of important zoonoses”, “soil microbiome and its ecological function”, and “motion control and flexible operation of agricultural robots”; ③ research on agricultural inputs to improve quality of crops’ and animals’ production and to realize green produce, including “molecular pesticide targets and molecular design of green pesticides”, “synergistic improvement of crop yield and crop quality”, and “theories and technologies of non-traditional food (feed) protein production”. Since the publication of the research fronts in 2017, most agricultural scientists focus their research on biological genes, especially CRISPR/Cas9– a relatively recent gene-manipulation technology that has been applied to gene editing and functional gene mining. The sustainable development of the environment is the focus of macro agricultural research, such as global climate change, biodiversity, and the variability of agricultural production. Human health is a major objective of agriculture; therefore, research on animal viruses has become an important task in veterinary science since the outbreak of COVID-19.

The number of core papers for these research fronts ranged from 8 to 204 with an average of 87, and citations ranged from 279 to 12 410 with an average of 3 239. Most core papers were published in 2016, 2017, and 2018 (Tables 1.1.1 and 1.1.2).

(1)   Cross-species transmission mechanism of important zoonoses

Zoonoses specifically refer to a class of infectious diseases that spread from vertebrates to humans and account for about 60% of infectious diseases in humans. It is estimated that there are currently more than 200 kinds of major zoonoses

《Table 1.1.1》

Table 1.1.1 Top 10 engineering research fronts in agriculture

No. Engineering research front Core papers Citations Citations per paper Mean year
1 Cross-species transmission mechanism of important zoonoses 20 1416 70.8 2017.3
2 Molecular biological mechanism of heterosis in crops 147 2318 15.77 2016.6
3 Molecular pesticide targets and molecular design of green pesticides 103 1375 13.35 2018.1
4 Motion control and flexible operation of agricultural robots 170 12 410 73 2018.3
5 Hybrid breeding of aquatic animals and its molecular mechanism 8 407 50.88 2016.4
6 Genetic and molecular basis of animal high-yield and high-quality traits 204 1506 7.38 2018.5
7 Soil microbiome and its ecological function 80 8 549 106.86 2016.8
8 Synergistic improvement of crop yield and crop quality 17 279 16.41 2018.2
9 Molecular mechanism of horticultural crops in response to abiotic stresses 17 390 22.94 2017.9
10 Theories and technologies of non-traditional food (feed) protein production 100 3 738 37.38 2016.5

《Table 1.1.2》

Table 1.1.2 Annual number of core papers published for the Top 10 engineering research fronts in agriculture

No. Engineering research front 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020
1 Cross-species transmission mechanism of important zoonoses 4 2 5 5 1 3
2 Molecular biological mechanism of heterosis in crops 28 16 20 32 23 2
3 Molecular pesticide targets and molecular design of green pesticides 13 11 7 15 31 28
4 Motion control and flexible operation of agricultural robots 2 17 24 34 63 30
5 Hybrid breeding of aquatic animals and its molecular mechanism 3 2 2 0 0 1
6 Genetic and molecular basis of animal high-yield and high-quality traits 10 17 23 38 43 73
7 Soil microbiome and its ecological function 13 21 20 19 6 1
8 Synergistic improvement of crop yield and crop quality 1 1 3 5 4 3
9 Molecular mechanism of horticultural crops in response to abiotic stresses 2 3 2 2 4 4
10 Theories and technologies of non-traditional food (feed) protein production 31 26 18 17 7 1

among which 30 zoonoses are posing serious public health threats. Since the beginning of the 21st century, the zoonotic outbreaks have resulted in increasing damage throughout the world. Among the emerging infectious diseases, 75.4% are zoonoses, such as SARS (2003), H1N1 influenza (2009), MERS (2012), H7N9 avian influenza (2013), Zika (2015) and the current global pandemic of COVID-19 (2019). Meanwhile, reemergence of some zoonoses, i.e., brucellosis, tuberculosis, dengue fever, Ebola, rabies and toxoplasmosis, has led to new epidemics. At present, the emergence of novel zoonotic pathogens is one of the greatest challenges to global health security and has a profound impact on human survival and socioeconomic stability. These sobering facts create an urgent need to further investigate the mechanisms of the cross-species transmission of zoonotic diseases. The core questions remaining to be addressed are: ① mechanisms of genetic variation, evolution and host adaptation of important zoonotic pathogens; ② molecular mechanisms of efficient replication and spread of zoonotic pathogens within new hosts; and ③ ecological basis of cross-species transmission. The technical advances and advent of big data have now made it possible to dissect cross-species transmission mechanisms of zoonotic pathogens in a micro- and macro-perspective. These will provide important material and technical supports for effective monitoring and better control and prevention of zoonoses of animal origin, eventually contributing to policy formulation. The current most important and urgent task for scientists is to conduct studies on the mechanisms of cross-species transmission, and determine the key factors of prevention and control of important zoonoses, especially those of animal origin.

(2)  Molecular biological mechanism of heterosis in crops

Heterosis usually refers to the phenomenon that two or more parents with different genetic compositions are crossed and the hybrid generation is better than parents in characters such as growth vigor, viability, adaptability and yield. At present, most of the crops, such as cereals, vegetables and fruit, have successfully been cultivated as dominant hybrids expressing heterosis. Although it has been more than a century since the discovery and application of the heterosis, there is still a lack of agreement on its genetic and molecular biological mechanisms. The rapid development of sequencing technologies and progress of genomics in recent years has provided new opportunities to examine the mechanisms of heterosis. The application of large-scale high-throughput sequencing and mining multiomics data in multiple hybrid combinations of different crops, combination with the heterosis performance in field, comprehensive utilization of methods include genomics, quantitative genetics, molecular biology, bioinformatics and other fields, and systemic identification of the key sites responding to the heterosis of important traits of crops, will provide important information for discovering the genetic basis of the heterosis formation. Some studies also analyzed present-absent variations, and changes of gene expressions, epigenetic changes and gene regulatory networks between hybrids and their parents, discovering non-additive expression of hybrid genes as an important mechanism for the formation of heterosis. Through mining heterosis genetic loci and illustrating molecular mechanism, researchers can predict the heterosis and effectively guide the selection of hybrid breeding parents, which will greatly improve the breeding efficiency. In the future, incorporating strategies such as molecular design breeding and gene editing, the heterosis-related genes can be modified with purpose, providing new strategies and ways for using crop heterosis.

(3)  Molecular pesticide targets and molecular design of green pesticides

The molecular targets of pesticide are usually biomacro- molecules, such as receptors, proteins, enzymes and nucleic acids, which are essential in some key biological processes. Interaction between these macromolecules with pesticides compounds will compromise biological processes vital for survival of plant pathogens and insect pests. In this regard, the nature of these macromolecule targets determines the mode of action of pesticides and, therefore, these are now the core for pesticide development. By exploiting and identifying potential biomacromolecule targets that are critical to the growth and development of pests and pathogens but absent in humans and non-target organisms, we can develop novel, ecologically-safe pesticide compounds. Such work is essential for the transformation of pesticide production from a traditional toxic industry to an environmentally-friendly, sustainable one. The key, and the most difficult, steps in identifying effective targets for pesticide development include obtaining structural information of the targets at a molecular level and understanding the mode of interaction between targets and pesticide compounds. Pesticide molecular design is a kind of technology to discover new compounds with excellent druggability, environmental compatibility and biological activity for a specific molecular target. The process of pesticide molecular design includes seed compound discovery, optimization from seed compounds to lead compounds, druggability optimization, resistance prediction, toxicity prediction, metabolic pathways prediction, high- throughput screening and molecular resistance detection.

Such a technique would greatly reduce the cost and improve the efficiency of new pesticide development by minimizing the amount of compounds that is needed for synthesis and screening.

(4)  Motion control and flexible operation of agricultural robots

Agricultural robot motion control and flexible operation is a key technology to enable intelligent agricultural equipment to replace or assist people in whole or in part to complete agricultural production tasks efficiently, conveniently, safely and reliably in natural environment. Through research on agricultural robot motion control and flexible operation, we can achieve more intelligent agricultural robot unstructured scene perception, high-precision positioning recognition, intelligent obstacle avoidance, high-quality and low-loss operation. The core scientific problems of agricultural robot motion control and flexible operation are as follows. High precision perception, recognition and localization of operation target in unstructured natural environment, including phenotypic feature recognition, scene recognition and localization, etc. Path planning decisions were constructed by multi-sensor information fusion technology, such as motion path optimization, operation posture optimization and operation sequence optimization. Based on deep learning and artificial intelligence, the motion control and flexible operation decisions of agricultural robots are given. Through the absolute and relative positioning of sky, earth and space and image information processing technology, the navigation path information and lateral deviation can be extracted to provide real-time positioning and map construction, and realize automatic obstacle avoidance. Moreover, the core scientific issues further include: enhanced artificial intelligence decision-making technology, multi-machine collaboration technology, human-machine integration technology, haptic feedback technology, teleoperation technology, immersive display of virtual and augmented reality technology, etc. Therefore, agricultural robot motion control and flexible operation technology can enhance agriculture robot flexible operation, such as detection, tracking and target identification of reliability and real-time performance, to enhance the awareness and ability to execute of flexible operation, to improve the flexibility and accuracy of motion control, extension of time and space coverage, and to improve the operation precision, all of which have important engineering significance.

(5)   Hybrid breeding of aquatic animals and its molecular mechanism

Hybrid breeding is one of the crucial techniques for aquatic animal breeding. By crossing parents with different genetic background, the hybrid offspring and lineages can have dominant traits such as faster growth performance, strong ability to anti-disease and strong resistance. Using hybrid breeding, several new fish genotypes with production advantages have been developed which provide abundant germplasm for the development of new industries in aquaculture. The key scientific question for hybrid breeding is to reveal the mechanism of heterosis, illustrate the common laws for generation of superiorities derived from hybridization, and utilize these laws to guide hybrid breeding. In newly formed hybrid offspring and lineages, genetic variations caused phenotype changes are selective for adaptation. Identification of genomic characteristics from hybrids and loci that control dominant traits, analysis gene expression and regulatory mechanism of key functional genes and constructing the connection from genome to phenotype are crucial preconditions for understanding heterosis. Important questions still need to be answered. What is the mechanism of genetic variation resulting from interaction of genomes from different parents? What are the common mechanism and differences in genomics variation in different cross combinations? What is the mechanism of gradual integration and stable tendency of parental genomes in the following continuous generations? What is the molecular mechanism for generation of heterosis derived from hybrid genomes? Thus, elucidating the molecular mechanism of hybrid breeding in aquatic animals would be helpful for the understanding of biological mechanisms and guide the application of hybrid breeding which would avoid the waste of resources that results from randomly choosing hybrid parents, so this has great theoretical and practical significance.

(6)   Genetic and molecular basis of animal high-quality and high traits

To analyze the genetic and molecular basis of high-quality and high-yield traits is an important prerequisite for breeding good and new animal genotypes. Comprehensive use of genetics, genomics, bioinformatics, molecular biology, biochemistry, cell biology, animal breeding and other methods is needed to decode animal genomes and gene maps, determine of quantitative trait loci (QTL) and molecular markers related to high-quality and high-yield traits, and further reveal the interactions between genes, phenotypes and the environment, and provide molecular genetic selection markers and manipulation targets for animal breeding with high quality and yield. With the completion of the whole- genome sequencing of various animals and the progress of bioinformatics, the whole-genome selection technology based on molecular markers and phenotypic determination has now been widely used in animal breeding, which greatly shortens the breeding cycle and improves the accuracy of selection. With the rapid development of gene editing technology, it has become an important direction of animal breeding to develop new genotypes with high quality and yield, and disease resistance by editing functional genes and regulatory sequences and carrying out multigene polymerization breeding. The molecular bases of important economic traits such as meat yield and quality, milk yield and milk quality, wool quality and yield, egg production, growth, development, reproduction, disease resistance, cold tolerance and hypoxia tolerance should be further revealed to determine key functional genes. Research on molecular basis of animal trait inheritance can improve the accuracy of trait selection and breed new animal genotypes with high-quality traits, which is of great significance to promote the high-quality development of animal husbandry.

(7)  Soil microbiome and its ecological function

Soil microbiomes are a combination of archaea, bacteria, fungi, viruses, protists, micro-animals and their complex environments. These microbiomes are important role for the processes of energy, material and information fluxes in soil ecosystems. As a major component in different ecosystems, soil microbiomes are closely related to soil health, food production and ecosystem services, and are also a core resource for industry, agriculture, medicine and environmental protection.

The main topic of soil microbiome research includes evolution and function of microbial communities in different types of soils, maintenance of soil microbial diversity, global biogeochemical cycle, microbiome resources, ecological functions and new technologies (e.g., single-cell analysis, systems and quantitative analysis). With the help of high- throughput sequencing and cultureomics, research on soil microbiome has reached an unprecedented stage, and research focuses have extended to bioremediation, disease prevention and human health. Research methods have gradually changed from qualitative description to quantitative and systems analysis. However, current technologies are still limiting to a deeper understanding of the function of soil microbiomes. Development of new methods and concepts will greatly accelerate the understanding of the function, precise regulation of soil microbiome and the development of microbial resources.

(8)  Synergistic improvement of crop yield and crop quality

The structure of consumer demand for agricultural products has changed significantly. It is no longer a matter of just providing basic nutrition, but in now also about eating well, quality, safety and health. Crop cultivation must a combine theory with practice, and stabilize or increase crop yield while focusing on improving crop quality. Crop quality and yield are both complementary and contradictory, which makes for a complicated scientific problem. If productivity is to be improved as well as quality, we must deeply understand interactions the two. For sustainable cropping with excellent quality and high yield the is a need for technical breakthroughs. ① According to the market demand for quality standards, further study of climate, soil, water and nutrients for crop quality and its mechanism, and the influence of physiological ecology quality formation is needed; ② identity and contradiction of factors influencing the formation of high quality and yield, should be studied to provide a coordinated approach for the cultivation of high-quality and high-yield crops; ③ synergistic growth characteristics of high-quality and high-yield improvement of crops should be investigated and mechanisms explored from the perspectives of optimizing population growth dynamics, preventing late premature senescence, anti- efficiency mechanism of photosynthesis of non-leaf organs, and regulation mechanism of ecological factors (light, temperature, water and fertilizer). Key problems should be solved for cultivation practices such as cultivar selection, growth diagnosis, suitable planting date, appropriate planting density, efficient coupling of fertilizer and water, and accurate diagnosis and control, so as to further innovate and achieve the potential of high yield crops, and establish practical cultivation techniques for coordinated quality improvement; and ④ according to the local ecological conditions, research the cultivation technology system for high quality and yield, and formulate the crop production technology standards.

(9)  Molecular mechanism of horticultural crops in response to abiotic stresses

The production of horticultural crops (including vegetables, fruit trees, flowers, watermelons and melons and edible fungi) has made a major contribution to ensuring the annual supply of diversified horticultural products, mainly fresh and juicy, and meeting the need of people for a better life. In fact, however, horticultural crops often suffer seriously from temperature (both low and high temperature), sunlight (both strong and weak light), moisture (both drought and waterlogging), soil (e.g., saline, alkaline and acidic), gas (e.g., hypoxia) stresses. How do horticultural crops perceive stress signals? What are signaling pathways involved? Where are the original responses taking place? What are the crucial role of plant endogenous hormones and exogenous plant growth regulators in stress resistance? How do plants defense and resistance stress? What are the functional mechanisms of calcium, salicylic acid, oligosaccharides and other functional regulatory substances in the regulation of stress resistance? What are the details for a synergistic network of plant resistance to stresses? And so much more. It is still unclear on the molecular mechanism of stresses response and resistance. So, it is urgent to expound the molecular mechanism of horticultural crops in response to stresses, which is useful for improving the resistance of crops to stresses and improving yield and quality.

(10)  Theories and technologies of non-traditional food (feed) protein production

Non-traditional feed proteins refer to proteins that can be utilized by in livestock and poultry feed, including seed meal, grain processing byproducts, dregs, animal processing by products, microbial proteins, insect proteins, apart from the high-quality protein sources widely used in the feed industry, such as soybean meal and fish meal. Due to seasonal limitations, geographical distribution and antinutritional factors, as well as the lack of uniform standards for processing and using, the abundant non-traditional protein resources have not been fully exploited and utilized by the feed industry in China. Multiple technologies, such as antinutritional factor reduction and neutralization, microbial fermentation and new engineering technology for the production of enzyme for livestock feed, need to be applied to feedstuffs, to enhance the nutritional value of non-traditional feed resources and the digestion, absorption and utilization of non-traditional feed resources, therefore reducing the requirement for the traditional protein sources by the livestock industry. In addition, the protein content in the insect meal, single- cell protein and microalgae are abundant with higher nutritional value. Application of synthetic biology, molecular enzymology, and modern biological technology to optimize insect or microbial culture systems will enhance the protein production, therefore providing protein source for feed industry. Collectively, application of new theories and technologies promoting the utilization of non-traditional protein resources will help to reduce the over-dependence on protein imports and alleviate the scarcity of feed protein resources in China. Also, this will accelerate the transformation and upgrading of livestock and poultry farming, as well as sustainable development of livestock science.

《1.2 Interpretation for three key engineering research fronts》

1.2 Interpretation for three key engineering research fronts

1.2.1 Cross-specific transmission mechanism of important zoonoses

Zoonoses specifically refer to a class of infectious diseases that spread from vertebrates to humans and account for about 60% of human infectious diseases. It is estimated that there are currently more than 200 kinds of major zoonoses among which 30 zoonoses are posing serious public health threat. Since the dawn of the 21st century, the zoonotic outbreaks have shown increasing damage throughout the world. Among the emerging infectious diseases, 75.4% are zoonoses, such as SARS (2003), H1N1 influenza (2009), MERS (2012), H7N9 avian influenza (2013), Zika (2015), and the current global pandemic COVID-19(2019). Meanwhile, reemergence of some zoonoses, ie., brucellosis, tuberculosis, dengue fever, Ebola, rabies, and toxoplasmosis, has led to new epidemics. At present, the emergence of novel zoonotic pathogens is one of the greatest challenges to global health security and has a profound impact on human survival and socioeconomic stability. These sobering facts strike an urgent need to further investigate the mechanisms of the cross-species transmission of zoonotic diseases. The core questions remaining to be addressed are as follows. ① Mechanisms of genetic variation, evolution, and host adaptation of important zoonotic pathogens; ② molecular mechanisms of efficient replication and spread of zoonotic pathogens within new hosts; and ③ ecological basis of cross-species transmission. The technical advances and advent of big data have now made it possible to dissect cross- species transmission mechanisms of zoonotic pathogens in a micro- and macro-perspective. These will provide important material and technical supports for effective monitoring and better control and prevention of zoonoses of animal origin, eventually contributing to policy formulation. The current most important and urgent task for scientists is to carry out studies on the mechanisms of cross-species transmission, and determine the key factors of prevention and control of important zoonoses, especially those of animal origin.

Epidemic status and risks of zoonoses. The zoonotic pathogens can be either bacteria, viruses or parasites. One common property among them is that diseases often transmit from wild animals to humans, or from wild animals to domestic animals and then to humans, and some may involve unusual vectors leading to spread among human populations. The reservoirs for zoonotic pathogens are mainly wild vertebrates, especially birds and mammals. It is estimated that there are nearly 320 000 viruses in 5 486 species of mammals of which many may be highly infectious and virulent. Without doubt, any outbreak will likely lead to a disaster for human beings. Many factors contribute to the transmission of zoonotic pathogens. Industrialization, global economic integration, environmental and ecological deterioration, and climate change have all brougt humans into closer contact with wild animals. The high risk of zoonosis represents a serious threat to human and animal health. As such, how to recognize this threat, handle the complex human-animal-environment relationships and avoid the recurrence of tragedies such as black plague, hemorrhagic fever, COVID-19 and influenza pandemic, have become a major challenges for human society.

Progresses in cross-species transmission of zoonotic diseases. With the development of bioinformatics and biotechnology and the integration of transdisciplinary tools, it is now possible to study zoonotic transmission mechanism from a macro scale in a comprehensive and systematic manner. In particular, the big-data approach is of great help to investigate zoonotic transmissions and has revolutionized the capacity to identify the key risks for disease prevention and control. Considerable progress has been made on zoonotic transmission in the following three ways.

Ecology of zoonoses and epidemic potential. Using the tools of next-generation sequencing and bioinformatics, scientists have studied the genetic variation and evolution characteristics of many important zoonotic pathogens, such as coronaviruses, influenza viruses, Japanese encephalitis virus and rabies virus. By searching information of virus genomes, outbreak timing, geography and host distribution, the spatial-temporal dynamics of virus evolution and spread in the ecological biosphere and identified key epidemic risk factors can be understood. For example, through a network clustering algorithm, researchers divided the live poultry trade in China into five regions, and deduced the history of virus transmission and evolution across provinces from the gene sequence of avian influenza virus, finding that the mode of virus transmission in the country fits well with the regional structure of live poultry trade. In the case of the COVID-19 outbreak, the Chinese scientists determined the full-length genome sequence of the pathogen within just days, revealed it as a relative of SARS-CoV-2 with 96% nucleotide identity with bat coronaviruses by sequence alignment, thus quickly pointing to the possible origin.

Host adaptability of zoonotic pathogens. To replicate efficiently within a host cells, zoonotic pathogens have to accumulate many adaptive mutations. The interaction with host receptor is a critical step for initiating replication within cells in vivo, but also an important antiviral druggable target. For example, by taking advantage of structural biology and biochemistry, scientist quickly identified adaptive mutations of key residues in the protruding receptor binding domain for increased affinity with angiotensin 2 receptor leading to increased infectivity in the SARS-CoV-2 study. In addition, reverse genetics, molecular biology and cell biology were used to study the mechanisms of virus replication, cellular tropism, genetic variation and recombination within different hosts, and to explore the species specificity, commonality and differences in replication of different pathogens. In the case of the swine influenza virus, it was found that a “G4” H1N1 subtype virus was a reassortant obtaining vRNP and M gene fragments from human influenza A virus (pdm09) in the process of evolution, thus enhancing the ability to replicate in human cells and the infectivity and transmission in ferrets, indicating that the virus has increased infectivity to humans and has the risk of causing pandemics.

Role of host restriction factors in the cross-species transmission of zoonotic pathogens. Zoonotic pathogens have to rely on host factors to proliferate efficiently within cells while evading the host cellular restrictions, which is emerging as key area for understanding pathogen-host interactions. The current research topics mainly focus on the regulatory mechanisms of immune evasion of host restriction factors, polymorphism of host restriction factors on cross- species transmission, discovery of novel host factors, as well as tracking the effects of host restriction factors on various stages of the pathogen life cycle. For example, through the study of host protein ANP32, a newly discovered host factor, it was found to be related to influenza virus replication and the polymorphism of ANP32 determined the replication efficiency of the virus in different host species (e.g., birds, pigs and humans) thus becoming a limiting factor for cross- species transmission. ANP32 is also critical to HIV-1 replication through regulating the nuclear export of incompletely cleaved RNA.

Future directions. The occurrence and prevalence of zoonoses are determined by many factors, including pathogen properties, host distribution, natural environment, and animal behavior, human sociopolitical and economic development. Over the past 20 years, industrialization, globalization, environmental pollution or destruction, and global warming have greatly affected the mode of transmission, outbreak intensity and scope of zoonoses. Therefore, how to effectively limit the cross-species transmission of zoonoses is an interdisciplinary, trans-departmental and interregional work, which requires an integrated “One Health” approach, the cooperation of clinicians, public hygienists, ecologists, disease ecologists, veterinarians and economists, and effective communication and coordination among countries and regions. The future research direction should focus on big data analysis, study the zoonotic cross-species transmission from the perspective of ecology and evolutionary biology, determine the ecological and cross-species transmission risk factors of zoonoses to better establishing early warning signals, and prevention and control measures.

Considering the distribution of papers by country, it can be seen that the main contributors of core papers on the “cross- specific transmission mechanism of important zoonoses” were the USA (70%), UK (35%), and Australia (35%) (Table 1.2.1). The citations per paper in this field ranged from 60 to 133.5 across the top 10 countries, and the citations per paper for Italy and Thailand exceeded 100. The distribution of papers by research institution shows that the number of core papers and the citations were the highest for the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Columbia University, EcoHealth Alliance, the University of Queensland, and the Institut Pasteur (Table 1.2.2). The collaborative linkages between the major countries were common, with the UK, the USA, and Australia sharing the closest collaborative relationship (Figure 1.2.1). From the network of collaborations between the major contributing institutions (Figure 1.2.2), it can be seen that collaborative relationships existed among all institutions. The main contributors of core paper citations were China, the UK, and the USA (Table 1.2.3), the number of citing papers in the USA accounts for nearly 30%, the UK and China both account for more than 10%, and the mean year of citing papers was also relatively recent, which is indicative of the strong developmental momentum of research in this field. From the list of the major core paper citation-contributing institutions (Table 1.2.4), it can be seen that the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and University of Sao Paulo were far ahead of all other institutions, and Chinese Academy of Sciences ranked third.

1.2.2 Motion control and flexible operation of agricultural robots

Status and core problems. The unstructured environment of agriculture is different from that of industrial robots: the objects of agricultural operation have no relatively fixed

《Table 1.2.1》

Table 1.2.1 Countries with the greatest output of core papers on “cross-specific transmission mechanism of important zoonoses”

No. Country Core papers Percentage of core papers Citations Citations per paper Mean year
1 USA 14 70.00% 961 68.64 2017.9
2 UK 7 35.00% 686 98 2016.9
3 Australia 7 35.00% 668 95.43 2017.4
4 France 5 25.00% 407 81.4 2017
5 China 4 20.00% 240 60 2018
6 Canada 3 15.00% 281 93.67 2017.3
7 Italy 2 10.00% 267 133.5 2017.5
8 Thailand 2 10.00% 204 102 2017
9 Netherlands 2 10.00% 193 96.5 2015.5
10 Germany 2 10.00% 169 84.5 2016.5

《Table 1.2.2》

Table 1.2.2 Institutions with the greatest output of core papers on “cross-specific transmission mechanism of important zoonoses”

No. Institution Core papers Percentage of core papers Citations Citations per paper Mean year
1 US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention 4 20.00% 301 75.25 2016.8
2 Columbia University 2 10.00% 273 136.5 2017
3 Ecohealth Alliance 2 10.00% 244 122 2018.5
4 The University of Queensland 2 10.00% 244 122 2018.5
5 Institut Pasteur 2 10.00% 213 106.5 2017.5
6 Yale University 2 10.00% 195 97.5 2016.5
7 University of Cam bridge 2 10.00% 193 96.5 2015.5
8 The University of Melbourne 2 10.00% 171 85.5 2018.5
9 The University of Edinburgh 2 10.00% 145 72.5 2017.5
10 University of Zurich 2 10.00% 125 62.5 2018.5

《Figure 1.2.1》

Figure 1.2.1 Collaboration network among major countries in the engineering research front of “cross-specific transmission mechanism of

《Figure 1.2.2》

Figure 1.2.2 Collaboration network among major institutions in the engineering research front of “cross-specific transmission mechanism of important zoonoses”

《Table 1.2.3》

Table 1.2.3 Countries with the greatest output of citing papers on “cross-specific transmission mechanism of important zoonoses”

No. Country Citing papers Percentage of citing papers Mean year
1 USA 447 29.23% 2019.3
2 UK 195 12.75% 2019.4
3 China 176 11.51% 2019.3
4 France 132 8.63% 2019.1
5 Brazil 117 7.65% 2019.3
6 Australia 100 6.54% 2019
7 Italy 97 6.34% 2019.3
8 Germany 79 5.17% 2019.1
9 Canada 71 4.64% 2019
10 Spain 58 3.79% 2019.6

《Table 1.2.4》

Table 1.2.4 Institutions with the greatest output of citing papers on “cross-specific transmission mechanism of important zoonoses”

No. Institution Citing papers Percentage of citing papers Mean year
1 US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention 61 16.76% 2019.4
2 University of Sao Paulo 41 11.26% 2019.4
3 Chinese Academy of Sciences 34 9.34% 2019.5
4 Institute Pasteur 34 9.34% 2018.6
5 University of Oxford 31 8.52% 2019.4
6 University of Montpellier 31 8.52% 2019.3
7 University of Pisa 30 8.24% 2019.2
8 EcoHealth Alliance 27 7.42% 2019.4
9 University of Glasgow 27 7.42% 2019.3
10 University of Cambridge 26 7.14% 2018.8

structure and position, and they block each other and have complex colors and textures. Agricultural objects generally have biological characteristics such as mobility, softness and commodity, and because of many uncertainties, flexible execution systems are often required. Agricultural scenes are complex and changeable, such as dust, wind and rain, changes in light conditions (day, rainy day, night) and so on, which have a great impact on the operational efficiency of agricultural robots. At the same time, agricultural labor shortage, labor costs are rising. In China, in recent years, agricultural labor force, especially young and middle-aged labor force, has rapidly transferred to other industries. Labor shortage appears in the busy farming season, labor intensity increases greatly, and production efficiency decreases significantly. Therefore, at present, agricultural robots can completely or partially replace human beings or assist human beings to complete efficiently, conveniently, safely and reliably, integrating perception, transmission, control and operation, greatly advancing the standardization and standardization of agriculture. Through the research of agricultural robot motion control and flexible operation, it can realize more intelligent agricultural robot unstructured scene perception, high-precision positioning recognition, intelligent obstacle avoidance, high quality and low loss operation. Its core scientific problems are: through image processing and understanding extraction, the realization of scene perception, scene recognition, phenotypic feature recognition of operation object in unstructured operation environment, and target positioning of operation object; through multi- sensor information fusion technology, based on deep learning and other algorithms, the motion path decision, job posture decision and job order decision are constructed. It can not only save manpower cost, but also improve quality control ability and enhance natural risk resistance ability, which has great engineering significance.

Progress and challenges. The shortage and aging of agricultural labor force began to appear in the 1980s. Up to now, agricultural robots have been developed and subdivided into field operation robots, greenhouse robots, forestry agricultural robots, animal husbandry agricultural robots and aquatic agricultural robots according to the natural environment and application scenarios. Its working action principle, structure form, complexity, operation effect and performance have their own characteristics. At present, agricultural robots still have huge bottlenecks: unstructured environment, biological characteristics of agricultural operation objects, complex and changeable agricultural scenes, and efficiency of agricultural operations, as well as reliability and security. Restricting the key technology to break through the basis of these problems, such as electricity and other new energy “low carbon” storage ability of the application, semiconductor and quantum computing, artificial intelligence from weak to strong AI (single) ascension (complex task), optimizing the agricultural standardization mode of “vertical farming”. Therefore, in order to achieve highly intelligent agricultural equipment and environmental adaptability, agricultural robot motion control and flexible operation technology is one of the key technologies to be solved urgently, which has great engineering significance.

Future directions. In the future, in order to make agricultural robots achieve the best work efficiency and operation quality in the regular and repetitive environment, on the one hand, agricultural machinery, agronomy, farming mode need to be highly integrated and highly standardized, reduce the diversity of farm landscape; on the other hand, in order to adapt to ecological diversity, different types of robots need to be used in a mix, which can free agriculture from the constraints of intensive labor and integrate ecological models such as food crops, fruits and vegetables, as well as trees and animals through an integrated agriculture-forest-pasture approach. The development direction of agricultural robot motion control and flexible operation technology is as follows: Deepen the strong artificial intelligence decision technology, machine more collaborative technology, man-machine integration technology, tactile feedback technology, remote operation, immersive display of virtual and augmented reality, etc., can be optimized agricultural robot motion control and flexible operation and working environment, make its can be operating in harsh conditions, enhance the awareness and ability to execute of flexible operation, Improve the flexibility and precision of motion control, expand the coverage of time and space, improve the accuracy of operation.

The top three countries in the research on “motion control and flexible operation of agricultural robots” are China, the USA, and Singapore. The top three countries with the highest citations per paper were Singapore, South Korea, and Australia (Table 1.2.5). Among the Top 10 countries, the USA had cooperation with China, South Korea, Canada, Singapore, Spain, and Israel, while Brazil did not cooperate with other countries (Figure 1.2.3). Chinese Academy of Sciences, Nanyang Technological University, and Washington State University were the top three institutions in the number of core papers published (Table 1.2.6). From the network diagram of collaborations among the major contributing institutions, Washington State University and Northwest A&F University have relatively close collaborative relationships (Figure 1.2.4). The top three countries with the greatest number of citing papers were China, the USA, and South Korea (Table 1.2.7). The main output institutions of citing papers were Chinese Academy of Sciences and Sichuan University (Table 1.2.8).

1.2.3 Hybrid breeding of aquatic animals and its molecular mechanism

From overcoming technology of artificial reproduction of the four major Chinese carp species in the 1950s by Chinese researchers, studies of fish breeding have been developed rapidly. Between 1996 and 2020, a total of 229 new aquatic genotypes have been approved by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs of China. Among these genotypes, 77 were developed using hybrid breeding approaches occupying 33.6%. In recent years, researchers in aquatic breeding try to use different hybrid combinations to generate hybrids and applying genetic principles to provide theoretical evidence for breeding technological studies and applications.

The objectives of hybrid breeding are to obtain hybrid offspring and lineages with heterosis. Based on evaluating production traits from various hybrid combinations, elucidating the mechanism for heterosis is one of comprehensive key research field. Previous studies have been used research technologies such as trait evaluation,

《Table 1.2.5》

Table 1.2.5 Countries with the greatest output of core papers on “motion control and flexible operation of agricultural robots”

No. Country Core papers Percentage of ore papers Citations Citations per paper Mean year
1 China 109 64.12% 7 662 70.29 2018.6
2 USA 47 27.65% 3 847 81.85 2018.2
3 Singapore 14 8.24% 1833 130.93 2017.6
4 South Korea 11 6.47% 1317 119.73 2018.3
5 Canada 9 5.29% 477 53 2018.8
6 Australia 8 4.71% 704 88 2018
7 Spain 8 4.71% 590 73.75 2018.8
8 Israel 6 3.53% 155 25.83 2017.2
9 Brazil 5 2.94% 272 54.4 2017.4
10 Germany 4 2.35% 259 64.75 2017.8

《Table 1.2.6》

Table 1.2.6 Institutions with the greatest output of core papers on “motion control and flexible operation of agricultural robots”

No. Institution Core papers Percentage of core papers Citations Citations per paper Mean year
1 Chinese Academy of Sciences 17 10.00% 1632 96 2018.6
2 Nanyang Technological University 12 7.06% 1747 145.58 2017.5
3 Washington State University 9 5.29% 279 31 2018.7
4 University of Florida 9 5.29% 222 24.67 2018.2
5 China Agricultural University 8 4.71% 194 24.25 2018.5
6 Hong Kong Polytechnic University 7 4.12% 767 109.57 2018
7 Sun Yat-sen University 7 4.12% 286 40.86 2019.1
8 Zhongkai University of Agriculture and Engineering 7 4.12% 129 18.43 2019.4
9 Northwest A&F University 7 4.12% 103 14.71 2019.3
10 Stanford University 6 3.53% 1569 261.5 2017.3

《Figure 1.2.3》

Figure 1.2.3 Collaboration network among major countries in the engineering research front of “motion control and flexible operation of agricultural robots”

《Figure 1.2.4》

Figure 1.2.4 Collaboration network among major institutions in the engineering research front of “motion control and flexible operation of agricultural robots”

《Table 1.2.7》

Table 1.2.7 Countries with the greatest output of citing papers on “motion control and flexible operation of agricultural robots”

No. Country Citing papers Percentage of citing papers Mean year
1 China 3 988 57.04% 2019.3
2 USA 1036 14.82% 2019.2
3 South Korea 429 6.14% 2019.3
4 India 251 3.59% 2019.4
5 Canada 206 2.95% 2019.3
6 Singapore 199 2.85% 2019
7 Australia 194 2.77% 2019.3
8 Germany 193 2.76% 2019.2
9 Japan 187 2.67% 2019.2
10 UK 173 2.47% 2019.3

《Table 1.2.8》

Table 1.2.8 Institutions with the greatest output of citing papers on “motion control and flexible operation of agricultural robots”

No. Institution Citing papers Percentage of citing papers Mean year
1 Chinese Academy of Sciences 636 31.74% 2019.4
2 Sichuan University 230 11.48% 2019.2
3 South China University of Technology 217 10.83% 2019.4
4 Shenzhen University 130 6.49% 2019.4
5 Zhejiang University 124 6.19% 2019.3
6 Zhengzhou University 124 6.19% 2019.6
7 Tsinghua University 121 6.04% 2019.2
8 Nanyang Technological University 108 5.39% 2018.7
9 Shanghai Jiao Tong University 107 5.34% 2019.4
10 Soochow University 106 5.29% 2019.4

karyotype analysis, gonadal detection to reveal genetic laws in hybrid breeding. With development of high-throughput sequencing and bioinformatic analysis, it is possible to show the key mechanism of production trait advantages resulting from hybrid genomes using comparative genomics and multiomics analysis. By analyzing genomic characteristics in hybrid offspring and lineages and understanding common mechanisms of genomic variation in hybrids would guide optimization for breeding approaches and cut down resource wasting by random selection of parents. Early studies suggested that crosses and reciprocal crosses usually result in large difference in phenotypes but the molecular mechanism is still unknown. Additionally, in aquatic organisms, several hybrids are fertile both for female and male because of weak reproductive isolation providing possibility for formation of distant hybrid lineages. These distant hybrid lineages could also be used for generating new germplasm resources. However, the genomic changes of hybrid lineages over extended generations are still not be estimated. For genetic variations of hybrid population, revealing hybrid genomic characteristics and establishing the correlation between genomic variation and production trait advantages is crucial theoretical bases for understanding mechanisms of heterosis and guiding application for hybrid breeding.

By examining biological traits and genetic characteristics, the hybrid genetic mechanisms at a chromosomal levels and reproductive mechanisms have been shown. These mechanisms have been demonstrated in hybrid breeding in several fish species and used as guidance for developing a series of hybrid population and lineages with significant superiorities. These hybrids provide ideal models for investigating aquatic genetic breeding and hybrid speciation.

Combining high-throughput sequencing and bioinformatic analysis, the molecular mechanism of heterosis could be elucidated precisely via comparative genomic, transcriptomic as well as multiomics analysis. For example, the genomic and transcriptomic studies on red crucian carp × common carp hybrids and blunt snout bream × topmouth culter hybrids suggested that the special gene expression patterns attributed to specific loci changes on genome are the basis of the phenotype changes in hybrids. Several teams have demonstrated the hybrid origin of goldfish and common carp by whole-genome sequencing and provided the key evidence of variation in the hybrid genome as a driving force in evolution. In hybrid breeding, several factors are unpredictable. In the context of the need for rapid and accurate breeding, systematic studies revealing the molecular mechanism of forming hybrid vigor, constructions of the correlation between hybrid genome and advantages of phenotypes, and elucidating the common mechanism of heterosis formation in different hybrid combinations should be strengthen, which will provide valuable guidance for hybrid breeding applications.

The Mendelian principles based on intraspecies hybridization pioneered the science of genetics. Furthermore, the studies on multiple hybrid combinations have suggested that chromosome numbers of parents are critical for survival and continuity of the hybrids. Recent studies indicated that incompatibility contributed to genomic mutation and sharp rise of recombination frequency provides the genetic foundation for hybrid vigor. Genomic variation in hybrid affect expression functional genes and contribute to advantageous traits. Nevertheless, the association between genomic variation in hybrid offspring and expression patterns of important genes is still not established. Key details of how patterns of gene expression affect phenotypes need to be investigated in future. For example, hybridization leading to genomic variation in Cichlids from Perciformes and Cyprinidae from Cypriniformes have been investigated providing evidence in breeding and adaptive evolution of acclimatization, however, we still lack systematic evidence on the effects of genomic variation on regulation of gene expression and phenotypes. Thus, using existing hybrid combinations to perform the studies on formative molecular mechanism of heterosis would extend our knowledge of the common mechanisms from the perspective of the hybrid driven genomic variation to reveal hybrid vigor. Studies on molecular mechanism of aquatic animal hybrid breeding as well as combining aquatic breeding technologies, statistics and bioinformatics to a new subject would better serve the breeding for aquatic animals.

The top three countries that had published the most core papers were Canada, the USA, and India (several countries are equal third) in the engineering research front of “hybrid breeding of aquatic animals and its molecular mechanism.” The top three counties that had the highest citation frequency per paper were Canada, India, Denmark, and Uruguay (Denmark and Uruguay were equal third) (Table 1.2.9). In the list of core papers published by institutions, McGill University, Canadian Institute for Advanced Research, Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute, University of Maryland, and University of Washington had published the most core papers

《Table 1.2.9》

Table 1.2.9 Countries with the greatest output of core papers on “hybrid breeding of aquatic animals and its molecular mechanism”

No. Country Core papers Percentage of core papers Citations Citations per paper Mean year
1 Canada 2 25.00% 188 94 2015
2 USA 2 25.00% 90 45 2016
3 India 1 12.50% 48 48 2015
4 Denmark 1 12.50% 47 47 2016
5 Uruguay 1 12.50% 47 47 2016
6 Spain 1 12.50% 42 42 2020
7 Colombia 1 12.50% 30 30 2017
8 UK 1 12.50% 30 30 2017
9 Brazil 1 12.50% 29 29 2016
10 China 1 12.50% 23 23 2017

and these core papers had the highest citation frequency per paper (Table 1.2.10). The collaborative linkages between countries (Figure 1.2.5) show that the collaborations were not common. The USA has cooperation with Canada and China, Denmark cooperates with Uruguay, and the UK cooperates with Colombia. In the network, the USA and Canada had a relatively close relationship. The top three countries that published the most citing core papers were USA, China, and Germany, with papers from the USA representing 25% of these core papers (Table 1.2.11). Chinese Academy of Sciences, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute, and Xiamen University have published the most citing papers. The mean citing year was 2018 (Table 1.2.12).

《2 Engineering development fronts》

2 Engineering development fronts

《2.1 Trends in Top 10 engineering development fronts》

2.1 Trends in Top 10 engineering development fronts

The Top 10 engineering development fronts in the agriculture field focus on the materials, technologies and equipment that are required for precision, ecological, green and genetic agricultural production, including 4 groups: ① gene-related technologies, such as “technology of genotype-phenotype association analysis in crop breeding population”, “gene editing and plant disease resistance”, and “livestock and poultry breeding by molecular design”; ② production- and management-related technologies and equipment,

《Table 1.2.10》

Table 1.2.10 Institutions with the greatest output of core papers on “hybrid breeding of aquatic animals and its molecular mechanism”

No. Institution Core papers Percentage of core papers Citations Citations per paper Mean year
1 McGill University 1 12.50% 121 121 2015
2 Canadian Institute for Advanced Research 1 12.50% 67 67 2015
3 Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institution 1 12.50% 67 67 2015
4 University of Maryland 1 12.50% 67 67 2015
5 University ofWashington 1 12.50% 67 67 2015
6 Cent University Gujarat 1 12.50% 48 48 2015
7 Aarhus University 1 12.50% 47 47 2016
8 University of the Republic of Uruguay 1 12.50% 47 47 2016
9 University of Villa Wilshire 1 12.50% 42 42 2020
10 British Marine Biological Association 1 12.50% 30 30 2017

《Figure 1.2.5》

Figure 1.2.5 Collaboration network among major countries in the engineering research front of “hybrid breeding of aquatic animals and its molecular mechanism”

《Figure 1.2.6》

Figure 1.2.6 Collaboration network among major institutions in the engineering research front of “hybrid breeding of aquatic animals and its molecular mechanism”

《Table 1.2.11》

Table 1.2.11 Countries with the greatest output of citing papers on “hybrid breeding of aquatic animals and its molecular mechanism”

No. Country Citing papers Percentage of citing papers Mean year
1 USA 128 24.66% 2018.3
2 China 97 18.69% 2018.9
3 Germany 42 8.09% 2018.3
4 France 40 7.71% 2018.6
5 Canada 39 7.51% 2018.5
6 UK 37 7.13% 2018.3
7 Spain 36 6.94% 2018.7
8 Australia 32 6.17% 2019.1
9 Brazil 25 4.82% 2018.9
10 Japan 23 4.43% 2018.7

《Table 1.2.12》

Table 1.2.12 Institutions with the greatest output of citing papers on “hybrid breeding of aquatic animals and its molecular mechanism”

No. Institution Citing papers Percentage of citing papers Mean year
1 Chinese Academy Science 26 23.64% 2019
2 Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution 11 10.00% 2017.5
3 Xiamen University 11 10.00% 2018.8
4 Tongji University 9 8.18% 2017.8
5 University Connecticut 8 7.27% 2019.9
6 Fisheries & Oceans Canada 8 7.27% 2018.2
7 Aarhus University 8 7.27% 2018.5
8 University British Columbia 8 7.27% 2018.5
9 University Montpellier 7 6.36% 2018.9
10 China Shipbuilding Industry Corporation LTD 7 6.36% 2018.9

such as “big-data-based fertilization system and devices”, “smart horticulture technology”, “artificial intelligence-based agricultural water and fertilizer management”, and “intelligent perception and accurate feed supply”; ③ technologies and inputs for green and high efficient agricultural production, such as “high efficiency animal-specific pharmaceutical preparations” and “innovation and production of green and smart fertilizer”; and ④ research on nature and environment, such as “seriously degraded forest and grassland ecological restoration technology”. Compared to the development fronts of the past five years, it is clear that breeding using gene technology and hybrid technology has become the main research goal of agricultural scientific research. New, highly efficient and environment-friendly agricultural production inputs are developed and applied to meet the needs of sustainable agriculture. For example, microbial fertilizers, animal vaccines and pesticide substitutes are becoming hot topics for researchers. With the rising attention of society to the environment, an increasing range of technologies are developed to repair polluted-soil and polluted-water and prevent pollution in the future. In recent years, research and development in artificial intelligence technology has penetrated almost all kinds’ agriculture production. The most representative is research and development in unmanned farms, because it is a comprehensive context for the application of artificial intelligence in agricultural.

The number of core patents for these research fronts ranged from 39 to 3 682 with an average of 652, and citations per patent ranged from 39 to 5 874 with an average of 1 292. Most core patents were published in 2017, 2018 and 2019 (Tables 2.1.1 and 2.1.2).

(1)  Technology of genotype-phenotype association analysis in crop breeding population

Connecting genotypes and phenotypes is one of the major tasks in genetics. In plant breeding, association analysis between genotypes and phenotypes at the population level can help locate genes and facilitate the discovery of their possible functions. In crop breeding, the association analysis between genes and phenotypes at the population level can help locate genes and promote the discovery of their possible functions. In recent years, the accumulated big data of high- density genotypes in breeding populations has given rise to a series of methods for quickly and accurately locating genes or variations associated with phenotypes, which have supported the association studies and phenotype predictions for complex traits. Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have been undertaken with many species to explore the genetic structure of complex traits. In practice, the effectiveness of GWAS is limited to the size and genetic structure of the population. Meanwhile, GWAS is also limited in distinguishing rare allelic variants, which are important in crop breeding and improvement. With the restriction of limited resources

《Table 2.1.1》

Table 2.1.1 Top 10 engineering development fronts in agriculture

No. Engineering development front Published patents Citations Citations per patent Mean year
1 Technology of genotype-phenotype association analysis in crop breeding population 134 5 874 43.84 2013.5
2 Gene editing and plant disease resistance 57 57 1 2019.3
3 Seriously degraded forestand grassland ecological restoration technology 43 39 0.91 2018.7
4 Livestock and poultry breeding by molecular design 729 1172 1.61 2017.4
5 Big-data-based fertilization system and devices 39 85 2.18 2018.7
6 High-efficiency animal-specific pharmaceutical preparations 770 1064 1.38 2019.8
7 Smart horticulture technology 72 140 1.94 2017.1
8 Innovation and production of green and smart fertilizer 855 1219 1.43 2018.1
9 Artificial-intelligence-based agricultural water and fertilizer management 3 682 3 072 0.83 2018.1
10 Intelligent perception and accurate feed supply 138 196 1.42 2018.1

《Table 2.1.2》

Table 2.1.2 Annual number of core patents published for the Top 10 engineering development fronts in agriculture

No. Engineering development front 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019
1 Technology of genotype-phenotype association analysis in crop breeding population 6 5 12 19 10 7
2 Gene editing and plant disease resistance 1 1 6 3 16 23
3 Seriously degraded forestand grassland ecological restoration technology 0 1 7 9 9 16
4 Livestock and poultry breeding by molecular design 67 73 100 107 191 113
5 Big-data-based fertilization system and devices 1 1 6 10 5 16
6 High-efficiency animal-specific pharmaceutical preparations 0 41 0 0 0 729
7 Smart horticulture technology 9 10 7 22 8 9
8 Innovation and production of green and smart fertilizer 63 85 164 177 145 170
9 Artificial-intelligence-based agricultural water and fertilizer management 213 510 693 765 521 674
10 Intelligent perception and accurate feed supply 2 14 31 35 16 22

and costs, biparental populations can effectively control the genetic background and reduce the complexity of analysis for deciphering genetic regions associated with complex phenotypes. The application of multiple biparental hybrid populations (e.g., NAM or MAGIC populations) and other strategies can accelerate cloning trait-related genes under different genetic backgrounds. In addition, combining different sequencing technologies, taking into account the cost of sequencing and the efficiency of population construction. Furthermore, sample pooling strategies combined with innovations in bioinformatic methods accelerates gene mapping or QTL mapping associated with important traits, which can effectively shorten the sample preparation cycle and also reduce costs.

(2)  Gene editing and plant disease resistance

In the agricultural production, plants are affected by various, severe diseases caused by multifarious pathogens. Plant diseases can lead to massive loss of crop yield and quality and seriously threaten the grain and food security. Among the measures to prevent and control diseases, the breeding and utilization of disease-resistant cultivars is the most economical, effective and environmentally-friendly one. However, the pace of resistance resources mining and resistant cultivar breeding fails to meet demand for the crop disease control. New gene editing technologies have provided opportunities and strategies to find novel resistance genes and improve crop disease resistance. Precise editing of crop endogenous resistance or susceptibility genes or the key nucleotides by plant gene editing can give crops excellent disease-resistance and assist the speed and ease of resistance breeding. In recent years, gene editing has been widely applied in disease-resistance breeding and considerate novel resistant germplasm has been obtained via knocking out the susceptible genes or correcting the key nucleotides of defective resistance genes. Due to the various and intricate resistance mechanisms in plants, current plant gene editing techniques cannot fully meet the needs of plant resistance breeding, and some important resistance genes cannot be edited effectively. Therefore, developing, optimizing and reserving high-efficient and new plant genome editing technologies and how to apply them better to mine novel resistance resources and breeding resistant cultivars will be the major direction of plant gene editing and plant disease- resistance engineering research in the future.

(3)    Seriously degraded forest and grassland ecological restoration technology

Forests and grasslands are the main ecosystems in China, and their degradation is a major environmental problem for the world, and is considered as one of the main causes of climate change. With rapid population growth, socioeconomic development, high-intensity development and utilization of forest and grassland resources and other global problems, the degradation of forest and grassland, directly or indirectly, has led to the destruction of the natural balance, which leads to continuous loss of biodiversity and increased the risk of people being infected with zoonotic diseases. Therefore, the restoration of degraded forests and grasslands is highy important. It is an urgent endeavor to restore the ecological functions of degraded forests and grasslands.

(4)  Livestock and poultry breeding by molecular design

Advances in molecular biology have given rise to the field of molecular breeding technology, which uses genome-wide marker-assisted selection (MAS) to screen DNA molecular markers tightly linked to important economic traits, analyses all genetic variation of the phenotype of the target trait on a genome-wide scale, and further analyses the interaction between phenotypic, environmental and gene expression regulation to identify QTL, functional genes and regulatory sequences associated with important economic traits. On this basis, animal genotypes can be improved at a DNA molecular level by animal biotechnology such as gene editing, or by association analysis between genotype and phenotype in hybrid offspring, and then using molecular markers to accurately estimate breeding values, so as to rapidly breed or cultivate new animal genotypes with high quality and yield, and disease resistance. Molecular design breeding of livestock and poultry mainly includes genomic selection breeding and transgenic breeding. The frontier technologies are mainly whole-genome molecular marker technology and precision gene editing technology.

There are several key problems for molecular design and breeding of livestock and poultry. The first is accurately evaluating the correlation between molecular markers and QTL. The second is exploiting QTL resources in the whole genome by single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) chip. The final problem is constructing the gene regulation network related to disease resistance, high quality and yield of livestock and poultry, and using various animal biotechnology to conduct gene design and breeding. Change from the older animal breeding methods to molecular breeding is inevitable. One reason for this is the breeding period with MAS can be greatly shorten, and it is not restricted by season or environment. Another reason is that livestock and poultry interspecific hybridization barriers can be crossed by transgenic technology and gene editing. Combination of MAS and transgenes would greatly reduce labor requirements, material and financial resources needed and eventually achieve a goal that can not be achieve by existing breeding methods. It will be of great value for breeding new types of livestock and poultry.

(5)  Big-data-based fertilization system and devices

Big-data-based fertilization system and devices are to continuously monitor the meteorological environment, soil water and nutrient parameters in agricultural production; use the plant growth and quality formation model to simulate and predict the crop production processes; implement fertilizer application with precise time, position and amount through the control system and related equipment; and conduct all- round automated crop water and nutrient management, thus to achieve the goals of higher fertilizer use efficiency, crop quality and yield, and labor efficiency.

“Big-data-based fertilization system and devices” is the key direction for the agricultural modernization, which involves multidisciplinary knowledge and technology including software engineering, mechanical engineering, water conservancy engineering, chemical engineering, plant nutrition and soil science. It is a key frontier for agricultural production technology and product development.

The frontiers in research on “big-data-based fertilization system and devices” mainly include: ① establishment of accurate water and nutrient models for crop growth, nutrient uptake and quality formation according to different climatic conditions, crop systems, crop cultivars and soil characteristics; ② development of sensors for accurate monitoring (above and below ground crop growth, leaf nutrient concentration, soil water and nutrient conditions) and automatic sampling and analysis; ③ development of field fertilization machines, drones and fertigation equipment for automatic fertilizer preparation and precise application; ④ invention of special environmentally-friendly fertilizers suitable for mechanical application and fertigation equipment in the field; and ⑤ development and industrial application of intelligent water-nutrition online monitoring and automatic control systems.

(6)    High-efficiency animal-specific pharmaceutical preparations

High-efficiency animal-specific pharmaceutical preparations are a technical form that can improve the efficacy of animal medication, reduce the frequency of administration, reduce toxic and side effects, expand the way of administration and enhance the tolerance of diseased animals. High-efficiency animal-specific pharmaceutical preparations have five characteristics: higher bioavailability, effective control of drug release rate, better stability, lower drug toxicity and drug resistance, and better clinical advantage. This mainly relies on the support of pharmaceutical technology, pharmaceutical excipients and pharmaceutical equipment.

Pharmaceutical technology mainly provides technical support for high-efficiency animal-specific pharmaceutical preparations. These technologies include solid dispersion, nano crystallization, sustained and controlled release, nano drug formulations, drug targeting, transdermal drug delivery, micro crystals, microspheres and microcapsules.

Pharmaceutical excipients and additives are used in the production of pharmaceutical preparations and prescriptions. This not only gives drugs a certain dosage form, but also has a great importance for improving the efficacy of drugs and reducing adverse reactions. Its quality, reliability and diversity are the basis for ensuring the advancement of dosage forms and preparations.

Pharmaceutical equipment is a necessary link for the industrialization of pharmaceutical preparations and the realization of core technologies. Pharmaceutical equipment is realized according to different pharmaceutical preparations, including crushing, screening, mixing, granulation, homogenization, suspension, emulsification, refinement, concentration, tableting, solid dispersion, extraction, drying, packaging and other crafts.

The cutting-edge technology of high-efficiency animal-specific pharmaceutical preparations mainly includes drug processing technology, pharmaceutical excipients, pharmaceutical technology, drug screening technology, drug delivery technology, pharmaceutical equipment technology and the application of new drug formulations in animal-specific pharmaceutical preparations.

(7)  Smart horticulture technology

Smart production of horticultural crops is an important part of smart agriculture. It is a production technology that integrates new generation information technologies such as the Internet of Things, big data and artificial intelligence (AI) with horticultural crop cultivation technologies. Water, gas, fertilizer and other environmental elements are precisely controlled to provide the best conditions for the growth and development of horticultural crops, and it is highly automated and intelligent. At present, the smart production technology of horticultural crops is mainly concentrated in aspects of facility horticulture. Whether it is a plant factory or a modern smart farm, both tend to be intelligent and modern.

Frontier technologies for smart production of horticultural crops mainly include the design and construction of smart greenhouses with low cost of creation and zero fossil energy consumption, research and development of intelligent equipment for facility environments, research and development of intelligent horticultural crop machinery and equipment, establishment of horticultural crop growth and development simulation models, and the largest crop. It also includes facility environment and nutrition simulation with output as the objective function, the development and application of high-efficiency light sources, the breeding of special cultivars for intelligent production, the development of intelligent production technology models and cultivation systems.

(8)  Innovation and production of green intelligent fertilizer

Green intelligent fertilizer is a new type fertilizer product that is based on the characteristics of crop nutrient and agricultural production, intelligent matching the nutrient requirements of soil-crop system, enhancing positive biological interactions between plant root/rhizosphere and environment, and finally realizing highly efficient nutrient supply and utilization. The creation of green intelligent fertilizer includes multidisciplinary knowledge and technology of chemistry engineering, material science, environmental science, plant nutrition, soil science and so on, as the key frontier in the field of the innovation and R&D fertilizer. The creation of green intelligent fertilizer refers to low energy consumption, low greenhouse gas (GHG) emission, full utilization of resources and high use-efficiency during the fertilizer production and application, and greatly meet all nutrient requirements of the soil-crop system. The main directions of green intelligent fertilizer creation including: ① deeply understand the root zone/rhizosphere nutrient management mechanisms and pathways, what’s more, the interactive effects of the component in the Rhizobiont and their cascade effects will help to design more effective green intelligent fertilizer; ② reconstruct beneficial soil microorganisms with synthetic biology and fully explore the potential of functional microorganisms to improve nutrient utilization efficiency or improve soil nutrient supply ability; ③ develop carbon priming materials for enhancing nutrient availability or the biological activity of microorganisms through interdisciplinary innovation and breakthrough; ④ innovate new production technologies and processes with no or low carbon emission, low nutrient loss, high nutrient bioavailability and high resource use efficiency by integration of industry and agriculture; and ⑤ in-depth understanding of rhizosphere biological processes, create fertilizer products that intelligent response to rhizosphere environment (temperature, moisture, pH, salt, microorganisms, etc.) through material synthesis and green production technology.

(9)  Artificial-intelligence-based agricultural water and fertilizer management

AI-based agricultural water and fertilizer management is an important method for modern agriculture to achieve precision, reasonable water and fertilizer irrigation, low-consumption and high-efficiency agricultural production, and high-quality and high-yield agricultural products. It usually uses Internet of Things technologies such as smart sensing, wireless sensor network, communication, large-scale data processing and smart control to dynamically monitor environmental parameters such as temperature, light intensity, soil temperature and humidity, soil moisture, air carbon dioxide, and matrix nutrients, and through the intelligent control of automatic equipment such as fans, roller blinds, inner shading, wet curtains, water and fertilizer irrigation, the plant growth environment can be optimized. At present, the research frontiers of AI in agricultural water and fertilizer management mainly focus on the application of AI systems in crop health and soil management, the development of AI irrigation systems that rely on AI technology, the construction of AI real-time monitoring platforms for crop performance and behavior and AI robots. The application of technology and unmanned aerial vehicles in field analysis, crop surveying and mapping, intelligent decision-making and control in agricultural water and fertilizer management.

With the continuous advancement of AI technology, within the framework of precision agriculture and big data, the application value of AI in agricultural water and fertilizer management will be further enhanced and consolidated. In the future, AI will be the mainstream scientific and technological means and methods for agricultural water and fertilizer management. Digital technology and AI applications will continue to penetrate agriculture, and the strong growth rate of AI in agriculture will continue to increase in the coming years. The application of AI solutions provides many opportunities. These applications will help farmers and agri- biological companies better understand the natural laws of crop growth and allow them to use fewer chemicals and pesticides to reduce the environmental effects. Finally, the AI system will be used to optimize crop growth, reduce incidence of crop diseases, and be able to continuously monitor crops and soil.

(10) Intelligent perception and accurate feed supply

Intelligent perception refers to the dynamic perception of various factors in complex scenes via emerging technologies including the Internet of Things, AI and big data. The immediate processing and analysis of the collected information through information fusion technology to achieve a comprehensive judgment of the properties of the environment and objects, which helps to guide the formation of decisions. Intelligent perception contributes to data visualization, management precision, and intelligence, thus being gradually applied in various disciplines such as animal husbandry, and becoming an essential element of intelligent farming. Feed accounts for 60% of the total cost of livestock production. Therefore, the improvement of feed conversion rate is a critical approach to boost economic efficiency and realize the green development of livestock industry. Various factors, including feeding environment, nutrient source and composition, as well as intestinal health, impact feed conversion rate and the utilization efficiency of feed. Based on the theory of intelligent perception and intensive animal production and management, the intelligent sensing module established is applicable to temperature, humidity, harmful gas concentration and animal physiological indexes in the complex production environment. A combination of the module with the dynamic prediction model of the nutritional value of feed ingredients will realize the precision feeding and the intelligent production and scientific management of livestock and poultry production.

《2.2 Interpretations for three key engineering development fronts》

2.2 Interpretations for three key engineering development fronts

2.2.1 Technology of genotype-phenotype association analysis in crop breeding population

Performing the association study between genotypes and phenotypes is a key task of genetic breeding studies in crops. Systematically characterizing the phenotypes of important agricultural trait for crop populations, and associating genotypes and phenotypes at the population level can help locate trait-associated genes and drive the discovery of gene functions. In recent years, the accumulation of multiple-omics data provided abundant data resources for connecting genotypes and phenotypes, and also brought challenges for constructing efficient and rapid technologies for analysis. Meanwhile, the complex genetic structure, population scale, rare mutation, and related factors of crop breeding populations have limited the power of traditional method, such as genome-wide association studies (GWAS), in ability of interpreting data. In considering the aspects of sample number, the cost of generating data, data quality, and recent novel technologies tried to effectively control the genetic background constructing specific breeding population, developing sample pooling strategy based technologies, and inventing novel genome wide association study without mapping short reads to genome, which effectively reduce the costs and largely shorten the research cycle.

In the aspect of genotyping, the SNP-array, genotyping- by-sequencing and high-throughput sequencing based methods have been well established for identifying high- precision genotype in breeding populations. Since many of the trait-associated key variations are beyond SNPs, it’s limited in space for exploring associations between SNP- based genotypes and phenotypes. Recently, the combination of second generation high-throughput sequencing and third generation long-read sequencing technologies can precisely identify complex trait-associated copy number variations and structure variations, making up the gap to some extent for the limited information provided by SNPs. The k-mer based strategies for trait association study provides strong statistical support especially for species without assembled genomes or specific genes that are hard to be assembled (e.g., the disease resistance genes). It will not rely on reference genome and sequence alignment, which will provide new way for exploring functions of some special genes.

As for phenotypic data accumulation, the rapid development of phenomics will make the large-scale, automatic and low- cost collection of multidimensional crop phenotypic data available. In the future, by building a large-scale and high-throughput phenotyping platform, we can accelerate the generation and accumulation of high-quality phenotype data. By reducing the high dimensions of phenotypic data and then associating with individual gene, the establishment of genome-phenome wide association study can provide a new perspective for crop breeding research, further accelerating the rapid mining of crop functional genes.

For statistical modeling, linear models such as BULP and LASSO regression can no longer meet the needs for analyzing the fast-accumulation of large-scale and multidimensional data generated by high-throughput sequencing. Especially for complex traits such as yield that were controlled by multiple genes, linear model only has limited power in capturing the associations among these loci, resulting in low prediction accuracy. In the future, establishing a series of breeding decision models using whole-genome selection, machine learning or other algorithms by analyzing breeding data and mining beneficial gene/locus based on breeding big data may provide more effective solutions for crop breeding.

With the extensive application of various omics techniques, the gene-traits association study can be extended in multiple dimensions including transcriptome, epigenome, metabolome and proteome. The study of eQTL based on RNA-seq can be applied to discover the variations regulating gene expression either in cis or in trans, which is helpful to understand the process that the accumulation of transcriptional products was affected by regulatory elements, and then changed agronomic traits. It is also a new direction to reveal the characteristics of gene dynamic expression through analyzing sequential trait data. Furthermore, the mQTL strategy utilizes a methylC-seq method to associate the epigenetic modifications with genetic variations, which can be used to locate genes that responsible for epigenetic variations. Also, the mGWAS strategy that associated epigenetic variations with phenotypes can be used to explored relationships between epigenetics and phenotypic responses. The multidisciplinary innovations by integrating cutting-edge multiomics technologies will extend the field of gene-trait association study in the future, and provide a new perspective for crop breeding.

See Tables 2.2.1 and 2.2.2, and Figures 2.2.1 and 2.2.2, respectively, for the major countries and institutions as well as collaborative networks among major countries and institutions. The number of core patents published by the USA, China, Switzerland, the Netherlands, and Australia ranked first to fifth. Among them, the USA ranked first in the number of patents published and citations, occupying an absolute leading position. The citations of patents published by China is few. There are only a few cooperative links between countries, and the USA stays as the central position and cooperates with the other countries.

The majority of the Top 10 major output institutions of core patents were from the USA, with one from Germany and one from the Netherlands. The top three companies were Pioneer Hi-Bred International Inc., Monsanto Technology LLC, and Syngenta Participations AG, all of which come from the USA, and there was some cooperation between institutions.

2.2.2 Gene editing and plant disease resistance

Plant gene editing is a new and critical technology of crop novel germplasm development and cultivar improvement that confer crops the excellent and novel agronomic traits to implement the genetic improvement quickly and easily via precisely editing the crop endogenous genes or the key nucleotides, including the target gene knockout, target nucleotide substitution and DNA fragment replacement. At present, plant gene editing mainly uses the CRISPR/Cas system originating from the bacterial immune system to accomplish the target gene knockout, the substitutions of base pairs A•T and G•C via base editor engineered by cytidine

《Table 2.2.1》

Table 2.2.1 Countries with the greatest output of core patents on “technology of genotype-phenotype association analysis in crop breeding population”

No. Countries Published patents Percentage of published patents Citations Percentage of citations Citations per patent
1 USA 87 64.93% 5 515 93.89% 63.39
2 China 20 14.93% 30 0.51% 1.5
3 Switzerland 9 6.72% 246 4.19% 27.33
4 Netherlands 9 6.72% 70 1.19% 7.78
5 Australia 7 5.22% 54 0.92% 7.71
6 France 4 2.99% 63 1.07% 15.75
7 Israel 4 2.99% 13 0.22% 3.25
8 Brazil 3 2.24% 159 2.71% 53
9 UK 3 2.24% 45 0.77% 15
10 Germany 2 1.49% 70 1.19% 35

《Table 2.2.2》

Table 2.2.2 Institutions with the greatest output of core patents on “technology of genotype-phenotype association analysis in crop breeding population”

No. Institutions Country Published patents Percentage of published patents Citations Percentage of citations Citations per patent
1 Pioneer Hi-Bred International Inc. USA 25 18.66% 101 1.72% 4.04
2 Monsanto Technology LLC USA 15 11.19% 434 7.39% 28.93
3 Syngenta Participations AG USA 12 8.96% 528 8.99% 44
4 Verenium Corporation USA 9 6.72% 839 14.28% 93.22
5 Seminis Vegetable Seeds Inc. USA 8 5.97% 29 0.49% 3.63
6 Diversa Corporation USA 7 5.22% 786 13.38% 112.29
7 BASF Enzyme Co., LLD Germany 7 5.22% 590 10.04% 84.29
8 DSM IP Assets B.V. Netherlands 4 2.99% 429 7.30% 107.25
9 CERES Inc. USA 4 2.99% 30 0.51% 7.5
10 Sinobioway Bio-agriculture Group Co., Ltd. China 4 2.99% 9 0.15% 2.25

《Figure 2.2.1》

Figure 2.2.1 Collaboration network among major countries in the engineering development front of “technology of genotype-phenotype association analysis in crop breeding population”

《Figure 2.2.2》

Figure 2.2.2 Collaboration network among major institutions in the engineering development front of “technology of genotype-phenotype association analysis in crop breeding population”

and/or adenine deaminase to impaired Cas9 nickase, and 12 base-to-base conversions as well as precise nucleotide indels and insertions using primer editor constructed with moloney murine leukemia virus reverse transcriptase and Cas9 nickase. Plant diseases caused by multifarious pathogens can disturb the normal growth and development of the crops and lead to severe loss of crop yield and quality, threatening efforts to meet the food security needs of an ever growing world population. Among the various kinds of plant disease control measures, the mining and utilization of disease-resistance germplasm resources is the most economical and effective measure. The emergence of gene editing technology provides a powerful new idea and strategy for the mining and breeding of disease-resistance resources.

During the interaction between plant and pathogen, the function of disease-resistance genes in host plants is important in effectively preventing pathogen infection and reducing disease loss. Furthermore, there are many susceptible genes existing in plant genome which negatively regulate the defense response to pathogens and increase the degree of disease damage. Therefore, both susceptible genes and negative regulators of plant innate immune response are good target sites for gene editing to improve plant resistance. For example, knocking out the wheat susceptible genes TaMLO conferred the resistance to powdery mildew, editing TALE-binding elements in the promoter region of OsSWEET genes enhanced robust broad-spectrum resistance to most Xanthomonas oryzae pv. oryzae strains, and new rice cultivars with broad-spectrum resistance to rice blast and bacterial blight was generated via simultaneous editing Pi21, Bsr-d1 and Xa5. In addition to the knockout strategy, defective resistance gene correction through CRISPR/Cas9-mediated precise base editing is an efficient and timesaving way to improve crop disease resistance. For example, the recessive allele pi-d2(M441) in rice was successfully and rapidly corrected to resistance allele Pi-d2(I441) by introducing the G-to-A conversion mediated by rice base editor rBE5. For viral diseases, gene editing can also be used to develop plant that stable resistance to DNA or RNA viruses by directly targeting and destroying viral genome with constructs containing Cas gene and specificity sgRNAs. In the future, resistance genes can be directly introduced into susceptible cultivars to improve their disease-resistance by gene editing mediated gene insertion. The newly-developing primer editing will also play an immeasurable role in disease-resistance breeding due to its robust and precise editing activity. Finally, besides utilizing and modifying the known resistance or susceptible gene resources, novel resistance-related genes and alleles can be artificially evolved via saturated mutagenesis in planta with a tiled sgRNA library corresponding to the interest endogenous gene(s). This strategy can overcome the limitations of natural variation and physical and chemical mutagenesis, and greatly shorten the breeding cycle.

In addition to continuously applying existing plant gene editing technology for the improvement of crop disease- resistance, the development of plant genome editing technology itself is also a crucial research direction. Due to the various and intricate resistance mechanisms in plant and some specific principles that CRISPR-based tools must be observed, such as the protospacer adjacent motifs, base editing window and type, and low efficiency of primer editing, current plant gene editing techniques cannot fully meet the needs of plant resistance breeding and some important resistance genes cannot be edited effectively. Therefore, high-efficient and new plant genome editing tools need to be developed, optimized and reserved. Once these limitations are overcome, the comprehensive and precise editing of crop genome and the improvement and utilization of disease resistance will be realized, which will greatly impel the process of crop disease resistance breeding.

Compared to the defects of hybrid disease-resistance breeding, such as long cycle, large workload and uncertainty agronomic traits, the application of gene editing techniques in plant disease resistance breeding can effectively avoid these problems, providing artificially-created novel disease- resistant germplasm to move crop disease resistance breeding into a rapid, high-efficient and accurate new phase. With the discovery of plant novel resistance or susceptible genes, the elucidation of disease resistance signaling pathways and the development of new and high-efficient plant gene editing tools, the rapid and precise regulation of crop disease- resistance will be realized by directly editing and modifying the endogenous defense relevant genes in crop. This work will accelerate disease-resistance breeding and move crop disease resistance breeding into a new phase of molecular design breeding in order to provide important support to implement national agricultural green plant protection and agricultural sustainable development and ensure the safety of food production. This field is becoming a key frontier in modern crop disease resistance breeding engineering.

The major patent output countries, institutions, inter-country collaborative linkages, and inter-institutional collaborative linkages are shown in Tables 2.2.3 and 2.2.4, and Figures 2.2.3 and 2.2.4, respectively. China, with 48 patents, covered 84.21% of all patents and ranked first. The Netherlands ranked second with 5 patents, and the third countries were Switzerland and USA. Nearly 65.91% patents from China had been cited, which is much higher than patents from Switzerland and the USA. The highest citations per patent was 7 for patents from Japan, 6.5 for Switzerland and the USA, and 0.77 for China. International collaboration was limited, and the only collaboration was between the different branches of Syngenta Participations AG in Switzerland and the USA.

Institute of Plant Protection of Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences had the highest patent output with 13 patents. The second were the Institute of Genetics & Developmental Biology of Chinese Academy of Sciences and Nanjing Agricultural University. The top three institutions for percentage of patent citations were the Institute of Plant Protection of Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences (29.82%), Syngenta Participations AG (22.81%) and China Agricultural University (21.05%), and Syngenta Participations AG had the highest citations per patent (6.5 per patent) among all institutions. The only collaboration was between the Institute of Plant Protection of Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, and Institute of Genetics & Developmental Biology of Chinese Academy of Sciences.

《Table 2.2.3》

Table 2.2.3 Countries with the greatest output of core patents in the engineering development front of “gene editing and plant disease resistance”

No. Country Published patents Percentage of published patents Citations Percentage of citations Citations per patent
1 China 48 84.21% 37 64.91% 0.77
2 Netherlands 5 8.77% 0 0.00% 0
3 Switzerland 2 3.51% 13 22.81% 6.5
4 USA 2 3.51% 13 22.81% 6.5
5 Japan 1 1.75% 7 12.28% 7
6 Germany 1 1.75% 0 0.00% 0

《Table 2.2.4》

Table 2.2.4 Institutions with the greatest output of core patents in the engineering development front of “gene editing and plant disease resistance”

No. Institution Country Published patents Percentage of published patents Citations Percentage of citations Citations per patent
1 Institute of Plant Protection, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences China 13 22.81% 17 29.82% 1.31
2 Institute of Genetics & Developmental Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences China 4 7.02% 5 8.77% 1.25
3 Nanjing Agricultural University China 4 7.02% 2 3.51% 0.5
4 Enza Zaden Beheer B.V. Netherlands 3 5.26% 0 0.00% 0
5 Huazhong Agricultural University China 3 5.26% 0 0.00% 0
6 Syngenta Participations AG Switzerland 2 3.51% 13 22.81% 6.5
7 China Agricultural University China 2 3.51% 12 21.05% 6
8 Southwest University China 2 3.51% 1 1.75% 0.5
9 Yichun University China 2 3.51% 1 1.75% 0.5
10 South China Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences China 2 3.51% 0 0.00% 0

2.2.3 Seriously degraded forest and grassland ecological restoration technology

Forests and grasslands are important terrestrial ecosystems that provide a variety of ecosystem services. For example, they can protect soil from erosion, regulate water conditions, capture and store carbon, produce oxygen, provide fresh water and habitat, help reduce fire risk (especially in the tropics), and produce wood and non-wood forest products, among other things. However, with the rapid development of social economy, forest and grassland resources have been intensively exploited and utilized, and forest and grassland degradation has become a major environmental problem worldwide. Forest and grassland degradation not only results in the loss of biodiversity, but also adversely affects the millions of people who depend wholly or partly on forest products and services at the local level and the billions who benefit from forest services at the regional or global level. Forest and grassland degradation is second only to the burning of fossil fuels as a key contributor to global climate change in terms of greenhouse gas emissions. Therefore, the

《Figure 2.2.3》

Figure 2.2.3 Collaboration network among major countries in the engineering development front of “gene editing and plant disease resistance”

《Figure 2.2.4》

Figure 2.2.4 Collaboration network among major institutions in the engineering development front of “gene editing and plant disease resistance”

healthy development of forests and grasslands is of great importance to the stable development of China’s and even the global ecosystem. Taking urgent actions to carry out ecological restoration, curb the degradation of forests and grasslands and restore ecosystem functions has become an urgent problem to be solved globally at present.

Forest and grassland degradation is a serious environmental, social and economic problem. As the causes, forms and intensities of forest degradation are different and different stakeholders have different views on forest degradation, it is difficult to quantify forest and grassland degradation. Ecological restoration refers to the process of repairing and renovating the damaged or degraded ecosystem with the help of artificial forces to restore its structure and ecological service functions to a better state. Ecological restoration is a new word in restoration ecology and a key content of ecological restoration and reconstruction, which is different from ecological reconstruction and ecological restoration. Ecological restoration has more positive meaning than ecological protection, and has more extensive applicability than ecological reconstruction. It has both the purpose of restoration and the action will of restoration. Restoration targets include both natural and artificial ecosystems, involving all ecological elements of territorial space. Ecological restoration, environmental protection and resource conservation have become the three cornerstones of ecological civilization construction.

Accurate information on the extent of forest and grassland degradation is required for detailed policy development and implementation of forest management plans to rehabilitate degraded forests and grasslands. Therefore, the main steps for ecological restoration of degraded forests and grasslands are: ① defining the concept and connotation of forest and grassland degradation; ② establish forest and grassland degradation assessment systems respectively; ③ using the evaluation system to measure and evaluate the degradation of forest and grassland, and analyze the degradation status and development trend of forest and grassland; ④ according to the evaluation results of degraded forests and grasslands, planning for ecosystem restoration, designing specific restoration measures, and proposing ecological restoration standards for degraded forests and grasslands; ⑤ implement remote sensing dynamic monitoring and restoration measures of degraded forests and grasslands according to planning requirements, design schemes and restoration standards, and carry out comprehensive management according to the concept of system theory; and ⑥ to evaluate the effect of the implementation of the restoration program through ground survey and remote sensing monitoring technology.

The assessment of degraded forests and grasslands is mainly supported by national continuous forest resources inventory and grassland inventory data. The general idea of the calculation of degraded forest and grassland is as follows: ① determine the reference object, degradation index and threshold; ② based on the inventory data and three factors, the climatic zone/province was taken as a whole to determine whether each land was degraded forest and grassland; and ③ the types and areas of degraded forest and grassland in each population [climate zone/province (city, autonomous region)] were statistically deduced. Ecological restoration should mainly consider how to identify forest and grassland as a whole and how to dynamically monitor their degradation. The general idea of ecological restoration of degraded forest and grassland is as follows: ① delimit ecological red line; ② regional development pattern (functional zoning); and ③ adjustment of the direction and layout of regional land use.

The main frontier technologies for ecological restoration of degraded forests and grasslands are area calculation of degraded forests and grasslands, ecological restoration engineering and biotechnology, and remote sensing technology. ① The area calculation of degraded forest and grassland mainly includes the determination of three elements of degraded forest and grassland, the identification of degraded forest and grassland, and the calculation of degraded area. ② Ecological restoration engineering and biotechnology include biological restoration, physical restoration, chemical restoration and engineering technology. ③ Remote sensing technology includes information acquisition, transmission, storage  and processing  technology.

See Table 2.2.5, Table 2.2.6 and Figure 2.2.5 respectively for the main producing countries, main producing institutions and cooperation networks among major countries or regions for relevant core patents. China and Russia ranked

《Table 2.2.5》

Table 2.2.5 Countries with the greatest output of core patents on “seriously degraded forest and grassland ecological restoration technology”

No. Country Published patents Percentage of published patents Citations Percentage of citations Citations per patent
1 China 274 90.13% 329 97.05% 1.2
2 Russia 6 1.97% 2 0.59% 0.33
3 New Zealand 3 0.99% 0 0.00% 0
4 Portugal 3 0.99% 0 0.00% 0
5 South Korea 3 0.99% 0 0.00% 0
6 USA 2 0.66% 0 0.00% 0
7 Australia 2 0.66% 5 1.47% 2.5
8 Ukraine 2 0.66% 0 0.00% 0
9 Indonesia 2 0.66% 0 0.00% 0
10 Brazil 1 0.33% 0 0.00% 0

first and New Zealand, Portugal and South Korea tied for third in the number of core patents disclosed. The top two cited countries are China and Australia. Among them, China ranked first in patent disclosure and cited number, accounting for 90.13% of patent disclosure. The proportion of cited patents is 97.05%. There were few cooperative links between countries, and only the USA had some cooperation with Portugal and Brazil.

Nanjing Forestry University, East China Normal University, and Research Institute of Forest Ecology, Environment and Protection, Chinese Academy of Forestry ranked the Top 3 in the number of main output institutions of core patents. The top three cited universities are Nanjing Forestry University, East China Normal University and China University of Mining and Technology (Beijing), all from China. There are no partnerships between different institutions in the top ten.

《Table 2.2.6》

Table 2.2.6 Institutions with the greatest output of core patents on “seriously degraded forest and grassland ecological restoration technology”

No. Institutions Country Published patents Percentage of published patents Citations Percentage of citations Citations per patent
1 Nanjing Forestry University China 12 4.12% 41 12.13% 3.42
2 East China Normal University China 8 2.75% 20 5.92% 2.5
3 Research Institute of Forest Ecology, Environment and Protection, Chinese Academy of Forestry China 8 2.75% 6 1.78% 0.75
4 Beijing Forestry University China 6 2.06% 9 2.66% 1.5
5 Research Institute of tropical Forestry, Chinese Academy of Forestry China 5 1.72% 1 0.30% 0.2
6 Chengdu Institute of Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences China 5 1.72% 2 0.59% 0.4
7 China University of Mining & Technology, Beijing China 4 1.37% 11 3.25% 2.75
8 Hebei Academy of Forestry and Grassland Sciences China 4 1.37% 4 1.18% 1
9 Beihang University China 4 1.37% 3 0.89% 0.75
10 South China Sea Institute of Oceanology, Chinese Academy of Sciences China 4 1.37% 2 0.59% 0.5

《Figure 2.2.5》

Figure 2.2.5 Collaboration network among major countries in the engineering development front of “seriously degraded forest and grassland ecological restoration technology”

 

 

 

Participants of the Field Group

Research Group Leader

ZHANG Fusuo

Experts

CAO Guangqiao, CHEN Yuanquan, DAI Jingrui, HAN Dandan, HAN Jianyong, HAN Jun, HAO Zhihui,

HU Yajie, KANG Shaozhong, LI Defa, LI Daoliang, LI Hu, LIU Shaojun, LI Tianlai, LIU Xiaona, LUO Xiwen,

NI Zhongfu, PU Juan, QI Mingfang, SHEN Jianbo, SHEN Jianzhong, WANG Guirong, WANG Hongliang,

WANG Junjun, WU Kongming, WU Pute, WU Zhenlong, ZHANG Fusuo, ZHANG Hongcheng,

ZHANG Shougong, ZHANG Xiaolan, ZHANG Yong, ZHAO Chunjiang, ZANG Ying, ZHOU Yi,

ZHU Qichao, ZHU Wangsheng, ZHU Zuofeng

Research group

CHU Xiaoyi, GAO Xiangrong, LI Hongjun, LI Yunzhou, LIU Dejun, LIU Jun, SHI Lijuan, SUN Huijun,

TANG Chenchen, WANG Guirong, YAO Yinkun, ZHANG Jinning, ZHAO Jie, ZHOU Liying

Report Writers

FU Liyong, GUO Weilong, HAN Dandan, Han Jianyong, HUANG Chengdong, JIN Chengqian, LIU Jun,

LIU Shaojun, LUO Xiwen, LV Yang, NI Bin, QIAN Yongqiang, QIAN Zhenjie, QUAN Fusheng, SUN Kangtai,

Sun Shikun, WANG Junhui, WANG Junjun, WU Zhenlong, ZHAO Chunjiang, ZHANG Yong, ZHU Qichao,

YANG Qing, ZHOU Huanbin