论基于基因组学的中药材定向培育策略与展望

Research strategy and prospects for the genomics-driven targeted breeding of Chinese herbal medicine varieties

为推动和加快中药材品种培育和种业发展,亟需加强中药材种质创新的研究和实践,建立具有中药特色的种质创新途径.育种核心种质的选择与合理组配是决定育种成效的关键,合理利用外来品种、地方品种或野生近缘种进行种质扩增、改良与创新,在中药材品种培育中发挥重要作用.基因组学技术的发展推动了中药材种质资源利用、优良基因发掘和育种效率,并为加快中药材新品种的定向培育提供了理论和方法.中药材种质资源收集鉴定是一项公益性的基础工作,本文系统论述中药材品种培育现状和面临的挑战,中药材种质创新的主要内容、基于基因组学的关键技术、种质创新基础平台建设策略等;基于中药种质资源杂合度高、与主要农作物育种具有差异性、中药材新品种选育目标应兼顾产量和质量等特点,展望了有序进行中药材育种核心种质及其品种定向培育研究的前景,提出具“内稳态”特征的中药材种质创新和新品种选育是现阶段主要任务之一,以期为中药材新品种选育提供理论和技术指导,进一步推动中药材种业的高质量发展.

In China, the area used to grow Chinese herbal medicinal plants continues to expand, reaching 90 million mu in 2021, withan output of 4.952 million tonnes. At present, the selection and breeding of these medicinal plants is mainly based onconventional breeding, resulting in relatively few elite varieties, with most little more than cultivated wild plants. Researchinto selection and breeding of high-quality, disease-resistant, stress-resistant, and storage-resistant varieties has beenlimited, making it difficult to meet the needs of large-scale, modernised agriculture and Chinese medicine. The germplasmpurification, cross-breeding, and bio-breeding of Chinese herbal medicinal plants is very limited, and requires the improvedselection and rational grouping of a core breeding germplasm. To promote and accelerate the cultivation of these medicinalplants, as well as to more broadly develop the seed industry, there is an urgent need to strengthen germplasm innovation inChinese herbal medicinal plants, particularly for medicinal characteristics. Identifying and collecting germplasm resourcesis foundational work with societal benefits. The rational use of foreign varieties, local varieties, or wild relatives will playan important role in germplasm amplification, improvement, and innovation. The development of genomics technologieshas promoted the use of Chinese herbal medicinal germplasm resources and the discovery of trait-associated genes, and hasimproved breeding efficiency by facilitating the targeted breeding of new varieties. This paper systematically discusses thecurrent situation and challenges faced when cultivating Chinese herbal medicinal plants, their germplasm innovation, thekey genomic technologies involved, and the strategies for constructing the basic platform to achieve these innovations.Chinese herbal medicinal plants have a high degree of heterozygosity, which poses breeding challenges that differ fromthose of major crops. The breeding objectives should consider both the yield and quality of the new varieties. Lookingforward, we propose that germplasm innovation and the breeding of new varieties with “internal homeostasis” is one of themajor tasks in the near future. The Chinese herbal medicinal germplasm resource management system includes fourfunctional modules according to the breeding needs, providing germplasm resource and variety data retrieval query andcomparison for open data, and convenient tools for the screening of breeding materials. This system supports the selectionof materials involved in the breeding process, the management of information on field trials and the information onselection and breeding experiments. It also supports the management of the information on the material selection, field trialand selection trial, and new variety library management in the breeding process;establishing a resource collection task onthe PC and collecting germplasm information through mobile phone programme. This system will become a bridgebetween germplasm resources and breeding research, and can be used for directional cultivation of parents and theirvarieties. With this review, we aim to provide theoretical and technological guidance for selecting and breeding Chineseherbal medicinal plants, which will promote further development of the high-quality medicinal plant seed industry.