韦德国际1946

Reinventing a Sustainable Green Revolution by Breeding and Planting Semi-dwarf Maize
Time : 2025-11-10 Views : Information source:
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Senlin Xiao1#, Wei Song1#, Ronghuan Wang1#, Shuang Zhang2, Mengyuan Liu1, Ruyang Zhang1, Tianjun Xu1, Hui Liu2, Jie Hu2, Jinfeng Xing1, Xiaqing Wang1, Tianyi Wang1, Xiangdong Fu2,3*, Jiuran Zhao1*

1Beijing Key Laboratory of Maize DNA Fingerprinting and Molecular Breeding, Maize Research

Institute, Beijing Academy of Agriculture and Forestry Sciences, Beijing 100097, China

2State Key Laboratory of Seed Innovation, Institute of Genetics and Developmental Biology.

Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100101, China

3New Cornerstone Science Laboratory, China College of Life Sciences, University of Chinese

Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China

#, These authors contributed equally: Senlin Xiao, Wei Song, Ronghuan Wang

*, Corresponding author: maizezhao@126.com, xdfu@genetics.ac.cn

ABSTRACT

The agricultural Green Revolution gave rise to semi-dwarf varieties that increased wheat and rice yields under nitrogen-intensive and high-density planting condition. However, maize, a cornerstone of global food security, never underwent an equivalent architectural improvement. During the 1940s-1960s, significant yield gains in maize had already been achieved via hybrid breeding. Nevertheless, the growing demand for high-density planting has exposed challenges in maize, such as lodging susceptibility and nutrient competition, consequently driving an urgent need for shorter hybrid maize varieties. Here, we summarize recent advances in maize height regulation, architectural optimization, and nitrogen use efficiency, which provide actionable targets for semi-dwarf maize breeding. Current biotechnology breakthroughs now enable the development of semi-dwarf maize varieties that enhance lodging resistance while reducing fertilizer dependency, thereby overcoming the historical limitations of Green Revolution varieties. We propose that semi-dwarf maize holds the potential to revolutionize maize production by enhancing resilience, yield, and sustainability.

Keywords

semi-dwarf maize; high-density planting; lodging resistance; nitrogen use efficiency; sustainable agriculture

Figure1: Architectural advantages of semi-dwarf varieties for high-density planting  

Figure2: AI-driven closed-loop framework for accelerated semi-dwarf maize breedi