The State Key Laboratory of Hybrid Rice was jointly built by Hu’nan Hybrid Rice Research Center and Wuhan University upon the official approval of the Ministry of Science and Technology of China on October 13th 2011.
Wuhan University has a long history in studying paddy rice. The study of rice genetics and development started in the 1950s; especially from the beginning of the 1970s to the present, it has been studying rice reproduction and development, rice male sterility and heterosis utilization, and has achieved a series of original achievements in such aspects as discovery and utilization of Hong-lian and Ma-xie rice cytoplasm male sterility new source, research and development of photo period sensitive genetic male sterile line, rice reproduction biology and cell engineering, and study of wild rice resources.It has published more than 40 papers collected by SCI and applied for more than 10 patents for invention and variety conservation. The research achievements have won more than 10 national, provincial or ministerial awards such as second prize of the national natural science, second prize of the national technological invention and outstanding contribution award of Hubei province, with more than 10 textbooks and monographs published. It has also been funded by the innovation team development program of the Ministry of Education and the innovation study group program of the national research foundation.
The laboratory has carried out innovative studies for several significant scientific issues in the sustainable development of hybrid rice at present to provide theoretical foundation and technical support for sustainable grain yield increase and safeguarding the grain security of China.The study is focused on the following six fields: (1) rice heterosis mechanism, (2) rice development and fertility mechanism, (3) hybrid rice germplasm innovation and gene discovery, (4) super hybrid rice breeding, (5) hybrid rice development and spermology, and (6) hybrid rice super high yield physiology and ecology.
Under the leadership of Zhu Yingguo, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, the laboratory implements the operation mechanism featuring “openness, mobility, combination and competition”, building a first-class research platform for people with noble aspirations that is based on China and targeted to the world.
Homepage: http://sklhr.whu.edu.cn/default.asp