Visit of Prof. YUAN Longping, Director of China National Hybrid Rice Research and Development Center and Academician of Chinese Academy of Engineering

On 14 Mar 2005, Prof. YUAN Longping, Director of China National Hybrid Rice Research and Development Center, Academician of Chinese Academy of Engineering visited the UGC AoE Plant and Agricultural Center (CPAB) and the Institute of Plant Molecular Biology and Agricultural Biotechnology (IPMBAB). Prof. Samuel S.M. SUN, Director of CPAB and IPMBAB hosted a seminar to introduce the current progress and future development of our collaboration with the China National Hybrid Rice Research and Development Center. During the meeting, Prof. YUAN accepted our invitation and continued to serve as a scientific advisor of the AoE CPAB project and the IPMBAB.

In the seminar, Prof. Samuel SUN gave Prof. YUAN an overview of the accomplishments (in the past 6 years) of the University Grants Committee Area of Excellence project (UGC AoE) on crop improvement, functional genomics, plant as bioreactor and fungal biotechnology including the establishment of well developed technology platforms on indica rice transformation, high expression vector system, molecular breeding system, enhanced seed bioreactor system and gene chip technology, which led to the successful production of high lysine rice (quality improved), the development of C4-super hybrid rice (quantity enhanced), and the generation of salt tolerance rice, and the production of fungal nutraceutical polysaccharides and natural color agent. Other achievements include publication of 98 peer-reviewed papers; manpower training of 175 technologists, 19 patent applications; organization and participation of international academic conferences and other public services. The outstanding performances of the project received admirable comments and evaluations from the UGC specialist group that the project, particularly the plant biotechnology aspect, has attained “International Excellence”. Because of the outstanding scientific accomplishments, the AoE project received an additional UGC AoE sustained funding (HK$25M) in 2007 together with the CUHK matching grant, a total of HK$ 50M was secured to establish a new institute on Plant Molecular Biology and Agricultural Biotechnology to further develop this project into a flagship scientific project in Hong Kong.

Three other Scientists, Dr. YUAN Dingyang, Ms. LEE Juon Kiu and Ms. CHAN Man Ling presented the current research progress on C4-super hybrid rice development and High lysine rice development. Prof. YUAN recognized the achievements and efforts of these research projects and suggested some future collaboration directions such as large scale field trial and evaluations in Hunan and Hainan research stations of the National Hybrid Rice Research and Development Center.

Prof. Samuel SUN was thankful to Prof. YUAN for his dedication to serve as the scientific advisor and his invaluable comments and inputs during his past site visits to CUHK. Both Prof. SUN and Prof. YUAN were enthusiastic not only to further strengthen our existing collaborations with the aim to achieve the “Phase Three of Super Hybrid Rice National Project” and the “Quality Improvement of Super Hybrid Rice” but also to explore other collaboration opportunities such as research on generation of new super hybrid rice male sterile parental lines.

The seminar was followed by a discussion and sharing session. Our Deputy Director, Prof. LAM Hon Ming, General Manager, Dr. LIU Pui Shan and other team members including Prof. FUNG Ming Chiu and Prof. NGAI Sai Ming and 20 researchers and post-graduate students also attended the seminar and participated in the discussion session.