Great Power Technology.

Chapter 320 Saturation Experiment

Gui Province, YL City Academy of Agricultural Sciences.

In the working area of ​​the ultra-clean inoculation room, two researchers wearing full-body protective suits and who can't tell the difference between male and female are doing a job that seems a bit substandard compared to this high-end and atmospheric research room.

They are peeling rice.

In front of the two of them was a bottle full of rice seeds that had been carefully selected. These seeds were all plump and large, golden in color, without a trace of mildew on the surface, and belonged to the best rice among the best.

What the two of them had to do was to manually remove the husks from the hundreds of grains of rice.

This is a tedious and boring job, but their eyes are extremely focused, and apart from chatting with each other occasionally, there is no unnecessary movement.

Peeling until the eyes were sour, one of them said:
"Brother, I can't do it anymore, this thing is too much for the eyes. How many pieces have you peeled off?"

The senior in the girl's voice glanced at the crowded triangular flask and said:
"169. I'm almost 17 groups, how about you?"

"I have 12 groups. Hey, my hands are still too raw, and I can't peel a grain quickly. Brother, is there still time for us to induce today?"

The induction in the girl's mouth refers to the induction of rice callus, which is the first step in the gene editing experiment. Only after the induction is completed, can the callus be infected with the Agrobacterium that has been transferred into the gene editing vector, thereby Change the traits of rice genes to achieve the purpose of gene editing.

After the callus is induced, they will continue to do Agrobacterium activation, expansion culture, infection and co-cultivation, selection culture, emergence and rooting.
After all these steps are completed, after one to two weeks of observation, a gene-edited rice plant can be transplanted into the soil, and then observed after it matures.

This is a long process. Although there is no atomic control like other physics or chemistry, if there is a problem in any one of the steps, it will bring about the failure of the entire experiment.

The boy put down the rice in his hand, flicked his wrist lightly and moved his neck, and then he answered:

"It's three o'clock in the afternoon. We have to do 50 sets of inductions in total. It's definitely too late for the two of us, but Xiao Liu and the others will come over in a while. If we work overtime tonight, we should be able to finish it."

"I'll finish it later, and I'll take you to Boss Wang's lychee garden to steal lychees to eat—this time, you should be smarter, don't catch a tree and pluck it, then the tree will be on the side of the road, and the trees next to it will all bear fruit." The tree is full, just the bare tree you stole, do you think you will be scolded?"

There was a trace of grievance in the girl's eyes, she muttered a few words vaguely, and then said:

"Then their lychees are grown for people to eat, and they are not experimental varieties. Just eat some."

"The point is, are you stealing lychees? You should remember what Boss Wang's expression meant at that time? Others who pick lychees will know what to pick and what to pick, how about you? If I hadn't watched you, the whole tree You have finished picking the fruits!"

".I see, I just think I'm stupid."

"Don't you think you're stupid? Well, don't be wronged. People criticize you just to play tricks on you. When will the lychees in our yard not be eaten by our own people first? Just don't take it to heart."

The girl nodded and replied:
"I didn't take it to heart, I just thought I was stupid"

While talking, she subconsciously raised her hand to rub her eyes, but was frightened by the stare from the boy opposite, and quickly put her hand down.

After a short pause, she sighed in the sterile suit, and then asked:
"Brother, do you think we can succeed in this experiment? Is the A&C-BEmax editor reliable?"

Hearing the girl's question, the boy thought for a moment in silence, then replied:
"I have read the documentation of A&C-BEmax, this editor is not the kind of experimental editor that appears every year that you think, it is a complete, verified and adjusted by experimental data, with high stability editor, in terms of performance and practicality, there is no problem with this editor."

"But the problem is that although this editor combines the features of many editors in the world, it is different from all editors, so it takes a lot of time to learn and become familiar with this editor from scratch. .”

"Okay, now comes the contradiction, we don't have so much time to study. Because according to the above arrangement, the subject of increasing production through KRN2 editing is used to deal with the food war in Ugly Country. It has to be done in the fastest possible time.”

"So the difficulty is also obvious. How do we balance speed and accuracy, and how to ensure that when using this editor, we can achieve success at the first time."

"This is the biggest difficulty we face right now."

The girl listening on the opposite side nodded thoughtfully, and then continued to ask:
"So what's the solution? We can't just gamble, can we?"

The boy smiled slightly and replied:
"Don't tell me, it's really a gamble on luck. However, the way we gamble on luck is a bit special-have you seen the Wandering Earth? There is a concept called saturation rescue."

"What we are doing now is a saturation experiment."

"According to the information I received, all agricultural science institutes and academies across the country that have the conditions to conduct gene editing experiments have already begun to use this editor. We are the first batch to use it and the first batch to start vaccination. "

"If our experiment fails, there are nearly a hundred opportunities across the country."

"Among these opportunities, even if it only succeeds once, even if it only feeds one plant, it means that our experiment was successful this time."

"Although it's all about luck, we are doing our best to eliminate those uncertainties."

"To use a vulgar chicken soup, it probably means, the harder you work, the luckier you are?"

"Hehehe, it seems to be the case. Brother, if our experiment is successful, how much do you expect the yield of this new rice variety will increase?"

"Theoretically, it's about 20% --- it mainly depends on the final fringe situation. At that time, you should pay attention and go to the field often, so as not to let the birds ruin our experimental field."

"I know, I know. Brother, will you go with me when the time comes?"

"Can I not go with you? If you let a girl go to patrol the fields alone, someone will break my spine."

Hearing the boy's words, there was a hint of sweetness in the girl's eyes, but there was also some doubt and disappointment.

However, this disappointment was quickly diluted by the continuing boring work. They sat opposite each other in the laboratory, and they were busy until 7 o'clock in the evening before completing the hulling of all the seeds.

And after this step, they have no chance to go out to rest.

If explant sterilization and inoculation are not done immediately, the longer these seeds are exposed to air, the greater the impact on the stability of the experiment.

But the next workload is really too big, relying on the two of them, I'm afraid they won't be able to finish it in one night.
-
Fortunately, after they operated independently for half an hour, the agreed reinforcements arrived one after another, and the sterile inoculation room immediately became lively. Colleagues who were familiar with each other were talking and laughing at the operation. Unknowingly, The time came to 12 o'clock.

After completing the sealing of the last petri dish, everyone walked out of the sterile room together. When they took off their protective clothing and walked into the hall, they saw that the floor in the corner of the hall was already full of things.

And Boss Wang, who had previously criticized girls for "stealing things without stealing", was sitting on the ground next to the pile of things, with a cigarette in his mouth, looking drowsy.

Seeing everyone coming out, he shook his head, stood up, walked up to the girl and said:
"Come on, don't you like to eat lychees? This time I will make you full!"

(End of this chapter)