Recently, at the 9th National Corn Biology Academic Symposium held in Lanzhou, the Gansu Provincial Department of Science and Technology, Lanzhou University, Gansu Dunhuang Seed Group Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Dunhuang Seed Group"), and top domestic research institutions engaged in in-depth discussions. The parties conducted thorough exchanges on topics including corn multi-omics and epigenetics, intelligent breeding, germplasm resource innovation, and industrial applications. This event exemplifies Gansu Province's exploration of a collaborative innovation model characterized by "industry posing questions, universities providing solutions, enterprises facilitating transformation, and government enabling support," and serves as a microcosm of the deep integration of industry, academia, research, and application in China's corn seed industry.

The research findings presented by the team led by Professor Hou Suiwen from the School of Life Sciences at Lanzhou University precisely align with the needs of the industry. In simple terms, plants possess a "molecular switch" called TOPPs, which plays a role in regulating functions such as drought and disease resistance. Professor Hou's team discovered that turning off this switch enhances corn's drought resistance. The team also elucidated the intricate regulatory relationship between this switch and the ABA signaling pathway, essentially identifying the "control button" for corn's drought tolerance. These discoveries provide crucial genetic resources for breeding new corn varieties with enhanced drought and disease resistance.

The precise matching model of "demand seeking technology, technology meeting application scenarios" has become a regular mechanism in Gansu. In recent years, the Gansu Provincial Department of Science and Technology has taken the lead in establishing a corn seed industry innovation consortium, implementing a research-production integration technology empowerment plan. This supports collaborative key technology research between institutions like Lanzhou University, Gansu Agricultural University, Gansu Academy of Agricultural Sciences, and leading seed enterprises. Dunhuang Seed Group has invested over 200 million yuan to build a commercial breeding system known as "one institute, six stations" covering major corn-producing regions across China. The group has specially appointed Academician Dai Jingrui of the Chinese Academy of Engineering as its chief breeding scientist and established professional teams for top-level design, variety selection, testing and transformation, and biological applications, currently employing 87 R&D personnel. The company collaborates deeply with multiple research institutions in areas such as germplasm resource sharing and cooperative breeding of new varieties, constructing a full-chain development framework covering germplasm creation, biological breeding, seed multiplication, demonstration, and promotion.

Dunhuang Seed Group, in collaboration with research forces including the Gansu Academy of Agricultural Sciences, China Agricultural University, and Hexi University, initiated the project "Integrated Research and Demonstration of Key Technologies for the Whole Industry Chain of Ganes National Corn Seed Production Base." After four years of dedicated effort, the project successfully passed provincial acceptance. It not only effectively addressed challenges such as low seed production yield, high costs, and difficulties in quality control but also established an integrated "breeding, multiplication, and promotion" whole-industry-chain technical system, providing solid scientific and technological support for ensuring food security.

"We do not engage in 'armchair theorizing.' All our research topics originate from the practical needs of the corn breeding front line, and our research findings are directly validated in industrial application scenarios," stated Zhou Biao, Party Committee Secretary and Chairman of Dunhuang Seed Group. He expressed the company's hope to use this symposium as an opportunity to establish closer and more long-term cooperation mechanisms with academicians, experts, and research institutions. The aim is to deepen collaboration in areas such as germplasm resource exploration, breakthroughs in biological breeding technologies, and the selection of breakthrough varieties, jointly promoting the transformation and application of cutting-edge theories and technological achievements in corn biology.

Through collaborative industry-academia-research efforts, Gansu has already bred a batch of corn "golden seeds": it has undertaken 11 key technology research projects in areas including male sterile lines, improving breeding efficiency by over 20%; selected and bred 86 new varieties, cumulatively promoted on over 18.6 million mu in major corn-producing regions like Northwest, North, and Southwest China, generating over 1.373 billion yuan in new output value. Among these, "Dunyu 810," co-developed by Dunhuang Seed Group and Huazhong Agricultural University, has become the top corn variety in the Southwest region, with an annual promotion area exceeding 3 million mu. "Dunyu 49" was included in the "National Catalogue of Promoted Crop Varieties (2025)."

Beyond technological breakthroughs, Gansu also leverages institutions like Lanzhou University to build a trinity "introduction-cultivation-application" seed industry innovation talent cultivation system, achieving precise alignment between talent supply and industry demand. At the symposium, Yang Yongping, Academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering and President of Lanzhou University, introduced that Lanzhou University has independently established a doctoral secondary discipline in biological breeding, and obtained approval to build the Gansu Provincial Key Laboratory for Gene Editing Breeding and the Gansu Provincial Gene Editing Breeding Industry Research Institute. The university has set up an undergraduate Biological Breeding Innovation Class to cultivate interdisciplinary innovative talents with both theoretical grounding and practical abilities; established the Yang Weicai Academician Expert Workstation; and is actively advancing the preparatory work for the Gansu Provincial Seed Industry Laboratory, the Northwestern Innovation Base of the Yazhou Bay National Laboratory, and the Lanzhou University Multidisciplinary Research Center for Smart Crops.

Wang Mingxue, Second-Level Inspector of the Gansu Provincial Department of Science and Technology, stated that the Department prioritizes agricultural science and technology innovation, having issued a series of supportive policies. It actively builds science and technology innovation platforms, supports research on key core technologies, promotes the deep integration of scientific and technological innovation with industrial innovation, comprehensively empowers the high-quality development of the corn seed industry, and contributes Gansu's strength to strengthening the national seed industry foundation and ensuring food security.