Authorized by the Department of Science, Technology and Education, Ministry of Agriculture in September 2000, DUS Testing Center for New Plant Varieties (Nanjing), Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs was established was by JAAS and is now affiliated to the Institute of Germplasm Resources and Biotechnology.
Nanjing Station is a non-profit organization specializing in the distinctness, uniformity and stability test (referred to as DUS test) of agricultural plant varieties, which is a comprehensive test station in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River in China.
According to the “Regulations on the Management of Plant Variety DUS Test of the Ministry of Agriculture”, Nanjing Station is mainly engaged in the following: undertaking DUS test of crops and endemic plants in the ecological area; collecting and preserving the varieties required for testing and building a database of existing varieties; conducting research on new testing technologies and methods, developing DUS test standards and guidelines; carrying out technical consultation on the protection of varieties and DUS test (application for agent variety rights).
Stable test team: The Director of the Station is Professor Huang Jun, Vice President of Jiangsu Academy of Agricultural Sciences. There are 11 testing professionals in the Station, including 9 full-time staff; 4 professors and 2 associate professors, 3 PhDs and 4 masters. All staff here have bachelor’s degree or above in agronomy and related majors and have passed professional training and examination. Most of them have been engaged in DUS testing for more than 7 years. The Station has an independent office, which is responsible for sample and file management and personnel assessment, financial and fixed resource management and logistics services of the Station. The lab is responsible for DUS testing and related technology research on plants.
Professional test conditions: There are 500 square meters of offices, archives, sample rooms and laboratories in the headquarters of the Jiangsu Academy of Agricultural Sciences. In the Baima Town of Lishui District, 120 mu of special test base is built, with a network of 1,800 square meters and a greenhouse of 2,400 square meters. The supporting test room is about 1,000 square meters, and the drying yard is 1000 square meters. Phenotype identification and molecular identification equipment such as PCR amplification instrument, microscopic sputum, refrigerated centrifuge, artificial climate chamber. The test base has independent seine and safety monitoring equipment and is guarded by personnel on duty 24 hours a day.
Comprehensive quality management system: The operation and management of Nanjing Station focuses on the whole process of quality control, involving 40 forms and templates including “Tester management”, “Test site and condition management”, “Test process management” and “Quality management”. According to the characteristics of test work, a series of systems including the “Post responsibility system for various personnel”, “Test raw data and file management regulations”, “Test sample management regulations”, “Test report preparation, review and approval system”, “Test work confidentiality regulations” have been established, the “Quality Management Manual” of Nanjing Station have been developed to standardize various aspects of testing and technology research.
Since its establishment in 2000, Nanjing Station has completed more than 10,000 tasks for the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, research institutes and seed companies, involving 16 crops such as rice, corn, cotton, common wheat and soybeans; completed the formulation or revision of test guides for 14 plants; formed 2 national standards, 15 industry standards; obtained 1 invention patent; 8 operation manuals and shooting procedures; undertaken 19 translation projects of 19 UP0V Guide. In the past three years, it has undertaken more than 20 projects of the Ministry of Agriculture, including 12 guideline development projects. In addition, it has undertaken 5 special research projects of the Jiangsu Academy of Agricultural Sciences.
It has completed the agricultural industry standard of “SSR molecular marker method for identification of barley varieties” and “SSR molecular marker method for identification of upland cotton varieties”. Based on high-throughput sequencing, the development and database construction of molecular markers for corn, cotton, rice and barley were completed.
After more than ten years of operation, the test work of Nanjing Station was solid and steady. In the evaluation of the National Plant Variety Testing Organization in 2019, it ranked No.1 among the 14 sub-centers established in the first batch; awarded the title of “National Advanced Individual for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants”; won 3 outstanding paper awards from the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, 4 awards at the Academy level; published 20 papers; participated in the compilation of the “Test of plant variety distinctness, uniformity and stability”, composed 4 chapters of about 10,000 words.
