Application of biotechnology in plant agriculture in China.

Early in 1984, when biotechnology was implemented as one of the eight priority projects of the "Seventh Five-Year Plan," it was fully realized that China, a large crop consumer, must pay much attention to the development of agrobiotechnology. Later, in 1986, it was again listed as one of the priority projects in the "863" program, the long-term, high-technology program of China. At that time, the strongest field of biotechnology in China was the field of plant tissue culture which had been developing for over a decade. Several new cultivars of rice, wheat, and tobacco were created using anther cultures; virus-free meristem micropropagation had been applied in the control of potato degeneration and of some viral diseases of ornamental plants; regeneration of whole plants from plant protoplasts or calli has succeeded with tobacco, carrot, and canola. By contrast, the field of transgenic plants was just at its beginning, whether it could be a successfully applied technology still remained to be answered, while applications in transgenic animal research were unknown [1].