Month: January 2021

According to MEI Xurong, vice president of the CAAS, dryland agriculture provides 43 % of the country’s grain and more than 75 percent of beef and mutton supply. More than 40 % of the wheat grown in China is drought-resistant and water-efficient, reducing the water consumption for agriculture. China has introduced and cultivated more than 70 drought-resistant and high-yield varieties of crops. Agricultural facilities for intelligent irrigation and fertilization, use of biodegradable plastic films and soil preparation machines were also developed. For “145”, key technologies for water saving will be developed, including integrated management of water and fertilizers and agricultural ecosystem reconstruction. Innovative agricultural materials and devices such as drought-resistant agents will also be developed, and the CAAS will promote the application of the Internet of Things (IoT), big data and artificial intelligence to advance dryland agriculture. Xinhua news release, January 28, 2021

Diosgenin is an important raw material for the synthetis of cortisone and other steroid hormones. The groups of JIANG Huifeng and ZHANG Xueli at CAS Tianjin Institute of Industrial Biotechnology have sequenced the genome of Dioscorea zingiberensis and applied bioinformatics analysis to identify important gene clusters for diosgenin synthesis and analyze the biosynthetic pathway of diosgenin. Based in this information, they built a chimeric pathway by integrating genes from zebrafish, yeast, Veratrum, and Dioscorea. In the optimized yeast strain, conversion rate from cholesterol to diosgenin was 60%, and diosgenin yield reached 10 mg/l. CAS news release, January 28, 2021 Jian Cheng et al., Plant Communications 2 (1): 100079 (2021)

The Single Cell Research Center of Qingdao Institute of Bioenergy and Processes, Chinese Academy of Sciences released the second-generation microbiome search engine MSE 2 (http://mse.ac.cn) to support more comprehensive, deeper, and more convenient big data mining of flora. MSE 1 contained already 100,000 16S rRNA amplicon sequencing samples, nearly 270,000 samples covering 16S rRNA amplicons, and birdshot metagenome types. MSE represents a new strategy for disease detection based on big data of the microbial flora, and it outperforms the commonly used machine learning algorithms in answering the questions of “whether” and “which disease” in the diagnosis of some chronic diseases might be based on intestinal flora. CAS news release, January 27, 2021 and mSystems, DOI: 10.1128/mSystems.00943-20

According to QI Dan, general manager of Chongqing Logistics, there were 2,063 trips from Chongqing to Europe in 2020, up 72%, transporting over 2.7 billion yuan value of medical supplies and basic necessities alone in 2020. The Chang’an China-Europe freight train service from Xi’an to Europe operated 3,720 trains last year, 1.7 times that of the previous year, and transported more than 2.81 million t of cargo, (+ 60 %), of which 80,000 t were COVID-19 related materials. In 2020, Yiwu station in Eastern Zhejiang Province, handled 1399 freight trains to Europe in 2020.  Xinhua news release, Jan 18/19/28, 2021

Luye Pharma AG, a German subsidiary of China’s Luye Pharma Group, will supply hospitals and pharmacies in nearly 50 Chinese cities. Rivastigmine is a treatment for mild to moderate Alzheimer’s disease and is administered transdermally once a day. It passes through the epidermis and is absorbed by blood vessels in the dermis to enter the whole body, circulate in the blood, and reach an effective blood concentration. In 2021, there were about 9 million patients in China, and it is estimated that there will be 21 million in 2050. Japan JST China news, January 25, 2021

According to the “Industrial Internet Innovation Development Action Plan (2021-23)” recently notified by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT), 30 5G fully connected factories will be built in 10 priority industries. New business formats such as smart manufacturing, network cooperation, personalized and custom-made products, service expansion, and digitalization management are expected to become widespread by this model project. Japan JST China news, January 25, 2021 (from People’s Daily)

According to the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences (CAAS), China’s meat production in 2020 reached 76.39 million t and egg production reached 34.68 million t, both ranking first in the world. Within “135”, the country has set up 199 national-level breeding farms, conservation areas and gene banks for livestock and poultry genetic resources. More than 300 local livestock and poultry breeds were preserved in the form of frozen semen, embryos and somatic cells. The CAAS has made significant progress in genome analysis, functional gene cloning and key breeding technologies for major livestock and poultry such as pigs, cattle, goats, chickens´, ducks and horses, providing a theoretical basis and technical support for genetic improvement and breeding. A number of functional genes with great breeding value were discovered. A new variety of yak was developed to improve production and help herders on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. During “145” (2021-2025), China aims to build the pool with the largest livestock and poultry germplasm resources, the most complete varieties, and the highest level of intelligence globally, which collaborate with enterprises. Xinhua news release, January 26, 2021

Since 2019, the Science and Technology Strategic Consulting Research Institute of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Beijing Municipal Science and Technology Commission publish jointly the “Global Urban Basic Frontier Research Monitoring Index”, trying to monitor basic frontier research at the national, regional and city level. According to the 2020 report, China now ranks second in the world, following the USA and followed by Britain, Germany and Japan. The gap between China and the United States in terms of research frontiers and breakthrough results is relatively small, but there is still a huge gap between China and the United States in terms of high-end talents. Among the TOP20 cities in the world, Beijing, Shanghai, Nanjing and Hefei ranked 3rd, 7th, 9th and 16th respectively, Boston, San Francisco, Los Angeles and New York ranked first, fourth, fifth and sixth, respectively. London ranked second, and Tokyo ranked tenth. China Science Daily news, January 26, 2021

According to data by China’s Ministry of Public security, new energy vehicles (NEV) in China reached 4.92 million units, over 40% of the world’s total. 4 million were electric vehicles (EV). Japan JST China news, January 22, 2021

January 12, 2021 China Internet Information center(CIIC) reported the new cases of COVID-19 infections in the capital city Shijiazhuang of Hebei Province. “Hebei epidemic prevention and control press conference informed that as of January 9 (Beginning from Dec. 27 2020). there have been 45 children infected with the COVID-19, the youngest 3 years old; among the asymptomatic infected, there are 40 cases in children, the youngest only 1 year old” Totally as of January 9, 336 new Infections were confirmed in the province. “Through these cases, it is at least clear that the virus has been spreading insidiously in schools for some time. The outbreak in Hebei has not yet reached an inflection point, and it is unknown how many children will eventually be infected.” CIIC warned “pandemic control and prevention shall not be a formality in schools. Students “going to school sick” is the source of the rapid spread of the epidemic in schools” All schools in the hotspot city Shijiazhuang have been switched to home-schooling from January 6, 2021. http://med.china.com.cn/content/pid/228634/tid/1026 As of January 24, in Shijiazhuang, 847 confirmed infections have been hospitalized and quarantined. 5 new cased were reported on Jan. 24 and 3 new cases on Jan 25. http://www.xinhuanet.com/politics/2021-01/24/c_1127019609.htm