Is eggplant a variation of pepper?

Moderator: Compared with ordinary vegetables, what advantages does it have? Lead: Welcome to the news night talk. Recently, the same news in many media and websites has attracted special attention. In other words, Beijing has listed 20 tons of space vegetables, and its output can reach 400 tons in August. These vegetables, known as space seeds, are generally larger when they mature, with an average of about 4 kg per eggplant and more than half a catty per tomato. It is understood that not only vegetables, but also seeds of many crops, including rice and wheat, will be significantly improved in quality and yield after space breeding. Some experts say that space breeding is an important way to solve the food problem in China and increase farmers' income. Is it true?/You don't say. So how is space seed formed, and where is the mystery of its yield increase? How do these so-called space vegetables taste? Will it be unsafe to eat them? The guest in our studio today is Liu Luxiang, director of the Space Breeding Center of the Institute of Crop Science, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences. He studies space breeding technology 1 1 year, and is also the chief scientist of the National Space Breeding Project of China Academy of Engineering. Moderator: The eggplant in my hand is just picked from the space vegetable base in Daxing Town, Pinggu District, Beijing. It is said that this eggplant is not ripe yet, and now it weighs more than a catty. When it is ripe, it must weigh 3 or 4 kilograms, almost as big as a watermelon. This is a space cucumber, this is a space tomato and this is a space pepper. It is said that these are not ripe yet, and they are twice as big as they are now. Liu Luxiang: Because mutation is random, it is possible that some seeds carried by breeders will be bigger, smaller, even higher and shorter, and the growth period will be earlier or shorter, or longer, and so on. Therefore, after the breeder carries the seeds by satellite, he will return the seeds for further screening, and it is possible to select some varieties with larger fruits. This is a trait of gene mutation. Moderator: So we can't do it on the ground? Liu Luxiang: It doesn't matter. Then we use nuclear radiation technology, which our country has been doing on the ground for decades. Such a mutation technology has cultivated hundreds of plant varieties. Compere: Is it that a very common seed will have such an effect when it turns into space? Liu Luxiang: All mutations are random, so the frequency of mutation of different plant seeds after being carried in space is different, that is, the probability of mutation is different. Some plant seeds are sensitive to the space environment and easy to mutate, so some plant seeds may not be sensitive, so they are not easy to mutate. So let's take, for example, carrying 100 seeds. As far as a certain plant is concerned, only a few percent of the seeds may mutate. Moderator: Is this concept big or small? Liu Luxiang: The concept of a few percent is quite large, so in fact, in the process of biological purification, natural variation exists objectively, so the frequency of natural variation is one in hundreds of thousands. Scientists use this mutation factor, and the artificial mutation factor increases the mutation frequency to a few percent to more than ten percent, which is a considerable mutation frequency. Moderator: Is it possible for all varieties to use space technology for this breeding mutation? Liu Luxiang: Not necessarily, so from the current situation, we have carried dozens of plant seeds. So from the effect of this mutation, that is, from the efficiency of breeding, the mutation frequency of rice and vegetables is relatively high. Of course, this is a further experiment, because the amount of plant seeds we carried was very limited in such an exploratory experimental work a few years ago. Moderator: Does it mean that this seed will have such a great effect when it goes into space and turns down to the ground? Liu Luxiang: That's not true. Because of this, we believe that space breeding is first and foremost a research activity. After the seeds are taken into space, they must return to the ground. After at least three to five years of screening and elimination stabilization tests by professional breeders, some of the strains that these breeders think are valuable or have prospects for popularization and application will be selected. After further stabilization, it must be tested for at least two to three years and appraised for many years. After that, it was identified by the Variety Approval Committee. It's not that we plant space eggplant or space watermelon as soon as we get on the boat, so some concepts. Moderator: So it is impossible to grow space vegetables in one year? Liu Luxiang: Yes, so it doesn't mean there is a misunderstanding. In other words, the seed will increase production as soon as it turns in the sky, and then it will be a space seed. This concept is completely unscientific and wrong. Moderator: Let's try this space vegetable, this space cucumber. Let's open it. Let's have a try. What's the difference between this and ordinary cucumber? We can see everyone. I'll taste it and see how it tastes. Why is it still a little astringent? It may not be ripe yet. Well, it's not much different from our ordinary cucumbers. Liu Luxiang: Actually, I think because space technology is a kind of breeding technology, once it is cultivated, that is to say, from your product, consumers can't feel that it tastes like space after tasting it. Moderator: Let's try this tomato again. Just a little noodles. It's quite sour. Liu Luxiang: That kind of mortar. That's right. Moderator: Then I would like to ask, compared with our ordinary cucumbers and tomatoes, apart from such great changes in weight and appearance, what advantages does it have over ordinary vegetables in terms of nutrition, yield, quality and taste? Liu Luxiang: First, its fruit is larger than the original variety, and the content of some vitamins and the volume of solids have increased by more than a quarter, which means that it must be compared with the original variety, that is, the yield and quality have been significantly improved. This is for Fan No.1, so some other vegetables and some seeds may, of course, greatly increase the yield or further improve the disease resistance after being carried, which is possible. Moderator: I know that these vegetables, the seeds of space vegetables, are in a state of high vacuum and microgravity in the space environment, and they may be irradiated by cosmic rays. Maybe we, as ordinary consumers, will be worried about whether there is any residual radioactive material in it? Liu Luxiang: There shouldn't be such a strict test. We did this experiment in 1996, that is, the seeds brought back by 17 recoverable satellite. After further measurement by a professional gamma spectrometer, we found that it did not increase any radioactive intensity. Moderator: One more thing, will there be harmful genes in the process of this gene mutation, then will this be harmful to our health? Liu Luxiang: This will not happen either, because as we said just now, this gene mutation is its own. We use the external environment to promote our own gene mutation, not because we have added other harmful genes other than ourselves, so it should not pose other threats to our human beings. Introduction (2): (Uncover the secret of increasing the yield of super rice and explore the secret of increasing farmers' income) Moderator: It is said that the super rice project hosted by Professor Yuan Longping contains the elements of space breeding. Is that so? Liu Luxiang: Yes, our national super rice breeding plan means that the main goal is high yield. (Authoritative experts tell you how to distinguish true and false space seeds) Moderator: Farmers may buy fake space seeds. Liu Luxiang: Probably, because we often get a lot of consultation calls. (Short film commentary:) Space breeding technology is a new technology to cultivate excellent seeds. It brings the seeds of crops into the space environment at a height of 200 to 400 kilometers from the earth through recoverable satellites or high-altitude balloons, induces variation on the seeds by using the special space environment, and then returns to the ground to cultivate new varieties with high quality and high yield, because the space environment is very different from the ground environment, where there are all kinds of cosmic rays, no air, no gravity and so on. These factors can induce crop seeds. Space breeding began in the 1960s. At present, only three countries in the world, China, the United States and Russia, have successfully carried out space-borne breeding, and China began to carry out space-borne satellite experiments from 65438 to 0987. In recent years, China has been ranked first in the world in the number of space breeding. By the end of 2003, the latest statistics of China Academy of Agricultural Sciences showed that China had successfully cultivated more than 630 aerospace breeding varieties, accounting for a quarter of the total number of aerospace breeding in the world, mainly including crops such as grain, vegetables, fruits and oilseeds, as well as flowers, seedlings and tea. Studio interview: Moderator: Space vegetables are only a small part of space breeding, so space breeding, as a key development project of the Tenth Five-Year Plan of the Ministry of Agriculture, should be said to be of great significance to the quality and yield increase of agricultural food in China. It is said that the super rice hosted by Professor Yuan Longping contains space breeding elements in this project. Is that so? Liu Luxiang: Yes, in our national super rice breeding plan, the main goal is high yield, so we have cultivated such a potential rice variety, weighing more than 800 kilograms. Moderator: So how much does it yield per mu compared with ordinary rice, and how much will farmers' income increase? Liu Luxiang: That is to say, the yield is our conventional rice variety, which is the rice variety in the process of farmers' production. Generally speaking, it is about 500 kilograms per mu, so if it is raised to 800 kilograms, which is equivalent to an increase of 300 kilograms per mu, then the extra income of 300 kilograms will increase. Moderator: The seeds of these vegetables we all saw were planted on the Long March II carrier rocket on June 3 last year and returned to the ground after 18 days of space orbit. If we continue to plant them like this, will this effect be maintained? Liu Luxiang: I correct this statement. These vegetables should not be the seeds produced by the varieties carried in June165438+1October last year. Moderator: Why? Liu Luxiang: As far as I know, tomatoes should be a recoverable satellite carried by 1987. After years of stable breeding and investigation, if it was carried only last year, then the seeds carried are called space seeds. This concept is wrong. Then the concept of other vegetables, or what is space vegetables, is also wrong. Compere: In other words, we should define the concept of space vegetables. Technically, a year is impossible. Liu Luxiang: Absolutely impossible. Now I think some of our propaganda is a bit empty on these issues and confuses the concept. Moderator: But the price of space vegetables on the market now is really expensive. The market price of an eggplant like yours is 12 yuan per catty. Tomatoes in this space are sold separately, one in 5 yuan and one in 5 yuan. Then you said that farmers did increase their income according to the sales price, but do you think that as an ordinary consumer, do you think we can afford these vegetables? Liu Luxiang: So I think it may be that things are rare, which is a hype concept. In fact, many problems and aspects in our real life are hype concepts to promote this kind of consumption. In fact, in essence, I think space technology as a breeding technology is an improved variety. Once the improved variety obtains this stable variety, the products produced should be no different from those cultivated by other methods. Compere: Admittedly, the changes brought about by this kind of space seed after breeding are obvious to all, but how can we tell which is the real space seed and which is the fake space seed, and can we tell it with the naked eye? Liu Luxiang: This can't be distinguished by the naked eye, so at least from the seed stage or the final product, we can't directly judge whether it is a space seed. Moderator: Will there be such a situation that farmers may buy fake space seeds? Liu Luxiang: Very likely. Because we often receive a lot of consultation calls, there is such a problem, so we think that if we want to understand the situation in this area, we must go to a regular scientific research unit to understand the current situation, so it is possible to avoid some losses by purchasing and planting varieties confirmed by these countries or confirmed, approved and approved by the provincial variety examination and approval Committee. Now there is some propaganda, which is mistakenly thought to be bigger, and it is cultivated by space technology. This concept is also wrong with the host: does the country have a regulatory department in this regard? Liu Luxiang: It should be said that the seed law of our country is such a perfect regulation to regulate the circulation of seeds and products, and it must be done in strict accordance with the seed law. Introduction (3): (China's first seed satellite interviewed Liu Luxiang, the chief scientist of the National Aerospace Breeding Project, in News Night. It is very different from our manned space flight. Moderator: For example, the rice, flour, vegetables and fruits we will eat in the future are all produced by space breeding. Will our food structure change? Liu Luxiang: It is possible. Studio interview: Moderator: Some experts say that developing aerospace breeding technology is an effective way to increase grain production and income in China. Do you agree with this statement? Liu Luxiang: I think this is at least one of the important ways, because our country has a large population and the area of land and cultivated land is decreasing year by year. If we want to carry such a large agricultural country or population base, we need to make great efforts on agriculture and food issues. Therefore, on the basis of conventional technology, we need to add some high-tech to speed up or improve the quality. So this piece is to ensure grain or grain output. Moderator: So far, how many kinds of crops have been tested in space breeding in our country? Liu Luxiang: It should be said that from the exploratory experiment of 1987 to now, it should be said that more than 70 kinds of plants, including crops and other cash crops, have carried out space-borne experiments. Then through more than ten years of exploratory research work, especially since the Ninth Five-Year Plan, the Ministry of Agriculture, the Ministry of Science and Technology and the State Planning Commission have invested in these projects and increased their support in this regard. By the end of 2003, the host: Are the rice and white flour we usually eat produced by this space breeding? Liu Luxiang: I should say no, because this variety is still in a promotion stage after it comes out. For example, after wheat comes out, people may not have time to taste its seeds, so they will be further planted as seeds. Moderator: When will China's first seed satellite go to heaven, and what changes will it bring to us? Liu Luxiang: This satellite has just been approved by our country and has entered the implementation stage. We predict that it may be launched by a special breeding satellite in the first half of 2006 by accelerating the preliminary work. One is to expand the scope of carrying plant seeds, and the other is to expand the application, which may make this technology play such an efficiency and role in more plant species and more fields. Moderator: If the rice, flour, vegetables and fruits we eat in the future are all produced by space breeding, will our human food structure change? Liu Luxiang: It is possible. It is possible that food that may have been eaten in a certain structure before may become another food structure. Moderator: When can we ordinary people eat cheap space vegetables? Liu Luxiang: In two to three years, wheat, rice and other food crops, including some vegetables such as tomatoes, may gradually approach the daily life of ordinary people. Moderator: Thank you for accepting our interview. Liu Luxiang: Thank you. Conclusion: The Ministry of Agriculture has made space breeding a key development project in the Tenth Five-Year Plan. At present, more than 20 provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions in China have carried out the introduction and trial planting of space green pepper, tomato, cucumber, space rice and wheat. In addition, at the 5th Agricultural Fair to be held in Changchun on August 5th this year, space agricultural products such as 15 space vegetables are also one of the important contents of the exhibition. I hope it helps you. Thank you for your adoption.