During the early autumn season, the corn fields in Hulunbuir remain lush green, marking a critical window for corn growth, pollination, and selection. At the Zhonghe Town corn experiment base in Zhalantun City, researchers from the Hulunbuir Academy of Agricultural and Animal Husbandry Sciences move methodically through the vibrant corn rows, conducting precise tasks such as manual bagging, pollination numbering, sampling recording, and data archiving. Through rigorous field operations and repeated experimental observations, the advanced haploid induction breeding technology is unlocking the genetic code for independent corn breeding in high-altitude cold regions, opening a new pathway for innovation in northern cold-zone seed industry.
Hulunbuir is a key corn-producing area in Northeast China, characterized by large temperature differences between day and night, short frost-free periods, and long frost seasons. This unique cold climate provides excellent growing conditions but also presents severe challenges for corn breeding. For a long time, local corn cultivation has heavily relied on varieties introduced from other regions. Varieties bred in the south and the Huang-Huai-Hai regions often show poor adaptability, generally exhibiting weak cold tolerance, unsuitable maturity periods, poor disease resistance, and difficulties in adapting to mechanized harvesting. These issues make them unable to fully meet the growth environment and cultivation patterns of the cold region. The weakness in local independent breeding has long constrained Hulunbuir's corn seed industry, making it a bottleneck hindering the high-quality development of modern agriculture.
To fundamentally solve the challenges of corn breeding in cold regions, the Corn and Rice Innovation Team led by researcher Sun Dongxian from the Hulunbuir Academy of Agricultural and Animal Husbandry Sciences has focused on advancing cold-region breeding. They have innovatively applied haploid induction breeding technology, forging an efficient path tailored to the northern cold climate. "We screen high-quality germplasm resources that are cold-tolerant and early-maturing, build hybrid base populations, then use haploid induction methods to develop homozygous inbred lines, and finally configure hybrid combinations using these quality inbred lines to select new corn varieties suitable for the local area," explains Sun Dongxian, head of the team.
Compared to traditional breeding methods, the greatest advantage of haploid induction breeding is the significant reduction in the breeding cycle and improved breeding precision. Traditional methods require 6 to 10 years of continuous screening and cultivation to develop a stable inbred line, which is time-consuming and inefficient. In contrast, using haploid induction technology, a stable homozygous inbred line can be developed in just two years. Combined with one year of evaluation and identification, new varieties can be selected and developed in three to five years, representing a qualitative leap in breeding efficiency.
"Our trial base is located in a cold region with synchronized rain and heat and high humidity, naturally forming a stringent environment for disease and maturity evaluation. This allows us to precisely screen high-quality breeding materials with enhanced cold tolerance, resistance, and yield," says Sun Dongxian. Leveraging the unique cold-region trial conditions combined with haploid induction technology, the research team can quickly screen, cultivate, and stabilize desirable traits suited to Hulunbuir's climate, precisely addressing the pain points of cold-region breeding.
Over the years, Sun Dongxian's team has worked tirelessly in both fields and laboratories. From summer field sampling, pollination, and material observation to laboratory gene analysis and data interpretation, and further through multi-year, multi-location field trial validation, they continuously optimize the breeding process. Utilizing modern methods such as winter nursery acceleration, intelligent detection, DNA screening, and AI-assisted selection, they persistently enhance the cold tolerance, disease resistance, and yield potential of new varieties.
Currently, the team's breeding results are significant. From 2023 to 2025, the team has completed the induction, doubling, and field transplanting of thousands of haploid materials, screening a large number of excellent combinations with early maturity, high yield, and strong stress resistance. Multiple high-quality lines have entered the autonomous region-level regional trials. This year, over 2,000 corn inbred line combination identification materials are showing vigorous growth, with key lines demonstrating excellent overall performance and great potential for demonstration and promotion. The new ultra-early maturing corn variety Hudan 47, developed by the team, is undergoing adaptability testing in the high-cold region of Hailar. "If it can mature normally and achieve stable and high yields in the Hailar high-cold zone, it proves this variety is not only suitable for Hulunbuir but also has potential for promotion to the Russian Far East, offering vast market space. Additionally, the new variety can be used in rotation with wheat, rapeseed, and potatoes, greatly optimizing the local planting structure," says Sun Dongxian.
New technologies and new varieties bring new cultivation models and industrial breakthroughs. The cold-region corn varieties developed using haploid breeding technology are suitable for high-density planting patterns in cold areas, allowing for 6,000 to 7,000 plants per mu, effectively breaking through the technical bottleneck of 'increasing density, boosting yield per unit'. The new varieties also possess advantages such as lodging resistance, high disease resistance, and suitability for mechanized harvesting, perfectly aligning with the needs of modern large-scale and intensive agricultural development.
"Hulunbuir's corn planting area spans seven to eight million mu, yet it has long lacked local independent superior varieties. This is an industrial shortcoming we must address," states Sun Dongxian. The research team will continue to conduct multi-environment, multi-scenario, and multi-stress trial screening, subjecting candidates to rigorous tests to cultivate high-quality corn varieties that can withstand market scrutiny and are suitable for cold regions.
Today, the application of haploid induction breeding technology is set to change the lagging state of cold-region corn breeding in Hulunbuir. As a batch of independently developed high-quality corn varieties gradually moves into large fields and is promoted for adoption, the independent innovation capacity of the seed industry in northern high-cold regions continues to improve. This not only fills the local agricultural breeding gap but also injects strong technological momentum into improving the quality, efficiency, and green, high-quality development of the cold-zone corn industry in Northeast China.