State Key Laboratory of Crop Gene Resources and Breeding

Established under the Institute of Crop Sciences, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences (ICS-CAAS), the State Key Laboratory of Crop Gene Resources and Breeding was approved for establishment in November 2022. Academician Wan Jianmin serves as Laboratory Director, and Academician Sun Qixin chairs the Academic Committee. Guided by the strategic imperative of safeguarding national food security and advancing the frontiers of biological breeding, the laboratory focuses on major crops such as wheat, maize, soybean, and rice, aiming to develop breakthrough varieties that are high-yielding, high-quality, multi-resistant, and resource-efficient. Its work integrates precise characterization of crop germplasm using innovative intelligent phenotyping to identify breeding-valuable materials and elucidate the formation and evolution of superior germplasm; the development of new algorithms, tools, and technologies for phenomics, genomics, and association analyses to enable efficient, high-throughput discovery; targeted mining of key genes for yield, quality, resistance to diseases, pests and stresses, and nutrient-use efficiency, together with dissection of their regulatory networks; the design and creation of novel genetic resources through the convergence of biotechnology and information technologies; and the construction of a molecular design breeding system to breed and deploy major varieties that meet diverse needs, accelerating variety renewal and ensuring seed-source security. The laboratory is building an open and shared platform for gene-resource and breeding innovation, a talent training base, and a hub for international collaboration, thereby enhancing China’s core S&T competitiveness in the seed sector.