Wheat Cytogenetics Institute headed by Academician Liu Dajun has long committed to the development and innovation of wheat germplasm resources, genomics and wheat variety improvement. There are 12 permanent staff, inclusive of 5 professor, 5 associated professors and 2 lectures. There are about 50 doctorial candidates, postgraduates and postdoctor every year.

The research of Cytogenetic Institute focuses on wheat and its relatives, including investigating of the gene structure and gene function of the cultivated varieties and wild species, elucidating of the genetic mechanism regulating the important agronomic traits, development of the new strategies and technologies for wheat breeding based on the disciplines of cytogenetics, molecular genetics, genetic engineering, identification and utilization of the alien gene resources, and development of new wheat varieties with high yield, good quality and disease resistance by using the traditional breeding strategies combined with molecular assistant selection, chromosome engineering and gene transformation.

The team’s researches have been supported with over 50 grants from McKnight Foundation, National “863” and“973”programs， the Important National Science & Technology Specific Projects of Transgenic Research，the National Science Foundation of China， and a few other provincial and ministerial projects. The amount of funding awarded to the center has over 20 million RMB. The team has published over 300 papers in academic journals both domestic and international, among of over 50 SCI papers. Ten textbooks have been published. All together over 10 patents have been authorized. A dozen of awards have been issued to this team.

In recent years, this team concentrated in wheat molecular breeding, gene cloning and transgenetic breeding. Pm21 from H. villosa has been identified to confer durable and BSR to Bgt worldwide since the late 1970s. The Pm21 gene was located to the short arm of chromosome 6V by the development of the wheat-H. villosa translocation line T6VS·6AL.T6VS·6AL has been used widely as a parent in breeding programs, and 12 new resistant varieties have been developed and released since 2002. The newly developed varieties have been cultivated on more than 3.4 million hectares by farmers in China, and they have been rapidly expanding since 2007. Many new germplasms with high FHB resistance has been cultivated. The work was supported by McKnight Foundation for a successive ten years in three rounds. New cultivars with resistance to wheat yellow mosaic virus and tolerance to salts have also been created. Molecular markers linked to some importantly agronomic traits was developed or screened and were used as marker-assisted selection in breeding. By cooperating with Institute of Agricultural Science in Lixiahe region, we bred 8 new wheat varieties in 5 years in periods of “15th Five-Year Plan”, which have been totally grown in a field of 46.495 million mu. Some special new breeding lines were under experiment through area or in production test, which are promising to be grown in a large area. Genes of resistance-related have been cloned and their corresponding transgenic lines were obtained.

The cytogenetics has always attached to exchanges and cooperation in and abroad with institute of genetics and developmental biology of Chinese Academy of Sciences, China Agricultural University, Institute of Agricultural Science in Lixiahe region and International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMIT), International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Kansas State University of America, University of Wisconsin of America and so on.

Team Leader: Pro. Peidu Chen