The National Key Laboratory of Crop Genetic Improvement was built on combining the strength in genetics and breeding of major crops with the recent development of molecular biology in plants in Huazhong Agricultural University. The setup of this laboratory was officially completed in 1994 by the State Planning Commission with co-funding by the Ministry of Agriculture.
Three major divisions:
- Molecular Biology
- Cell Engineering
- Germplasm Enhancement and Breeding Theory
The areas of research work:
- structural and functional genomics of crop plants
- germplasm evaluation and gene identification
- mapping and cloning of agriculturally useful genes
- genetic and molecular bases of heterosis
- new germplasm creation by somatic hybridization
- varietal improvement by integrating biotechnology and conventional breeding