Cell Engineering and Germplasm Enhancement of Horticultural Plants

The team, led by Prof. Guo Wenwu, the Changjiang Scholar and the recipient of National Science Fund for Distinguished Young Scholar, consists of 12 professors and assistance professors. It was selected as the innovation group supported by the Hubei Province Natural Science Foundation and also the Ministry of Education in 2013. The team focuses on solving problems in breeding and product quality of horticultural plants including citrus, potato and ornamental plants, providing new theories, technologies and materials for germplasm enhancement through cell engineering. Now the team mainly devotes to three research interests, namely, mechanisms of somatic cell development and mutation, germplasm enhancement and selection of new varieties through cell engineering, dissection of distinct traits of the novel germplasms and molecular breeding.

The team has established and optimized the protoplast fusion and regeneration system of citrus and potato, and proposed a new idea of targeted cybridization of citrus to transfer male sterile cytoplasm. The team has bred the first citrus cybrid new variety, ‘Huayou No.2’ pumelo, which shows male sterility and bears seedless fruits. The team has produced numerous new germplasms of citrus, potato and ornamental plants, which are widely applied in breeding and the related basic researches.