China’s new hybrid rice can preserve its high-yield traits across generations, allowing farmers to...

China achieves 99% hybrid rice seed cloning with HUAXU gene, cuts annual seed costs China’s new hybrid rice can preserve its high-yield traits across generations, potentially allowing farmers to replant seeds instead of buying new ones every year.Scientists at the China National Rice Research Institute in Hangzhou have developed a self-cloning hybrid rice system that maintains superior crop yields while achieving over 99 per cent cloning efficiency. Led by researcher and professor Wang Kejian, the study was published in the academic journal Vita on July 21, with additional details reported by the Global Times.The breakthrough targets a long-standing barrier in modern agriculture known as hybrid vigour. Hybrid rice produces 10 to 30 per cent higher yields than standard varieties. However, when farmers harvest and replant seeds from conventional two-line or three-line hybrid crops, the genetic traits separate in the next generation, causing the yield advantage to disappear.As a result, growers are forced to purchase fresh hybrid seeds every single season.How the HUAXU gene unlocks seed cloningWang's research team began addressing this issue in 2013 by focusing on synthetic apomixis, ...