Peking University Institute of Advanced Agricultural Sciences

 

From 31 May to 1 June 2025, the Third Xiashan Conference was held at the Peking University Institute of Advanced Agricultural Sciences (PKU-IAAS) / Shandong Laboratory of Advanced Agriculture Sciences in Weifang (SLAASW). More than 150 domestic and foreign experts, scholars and industrial representatives in the field of agricultural science and technology, as well as researchers from the institute / provincial laboratory, attended the meeting. The conference brought together top global scientists, breeding experts and enterprise representatives to conduct in-depth discussions on the latest advances in plant gene-editing technology, explorations in synthetic biology, breeding applications, and the opportunities and challenges facing commercialization. The conference sent a clear signal: gene-editing technology is reshaping a bright future of high yield, stress tolerance and high nutrition for Chinese crops, yet its path to commercialization urgently needs to overcome multiple challenges.

 

 

This Xiashan Conference focused on “gene editing” and invited four well-known experts in the field to serve as executive chairs including Academician Yaoguang Liu, Academician Jian-Kang Zhu, Drs. Caixia Gao and Tianmeng Zhao.

 

Executive Chairs of the Third Xia Shan Conference

 

Academician Yaoguang Liu, South China Agricultural University, and Dr. Zhang Xingping Zhang, Deputy Director of PKU-IAAS and Deputy Director of SLAASW, delivered opening remarks, and Dr. Tianmeng Zhao, Co-founder of Qi Biodesign, chaired the opening ceremony. Academician Xing Wang Deng, Director of PKU-IAAS and Director of SLAASW, attended the meeting.

In his address, Dr. Yaoguang Liu stated: biotechnology such as gene editing is driving agriculture from reliance on random mutation to precision design, providing an excellent solution to global challenges such as food security and climate change. This conference comes at a crucial point in the deepening implementation of the national “14th Five-Year” bio-economy development plan; we should take this conference as an opportunity to jointly draw a beautiful blueprint for biotech breeding innovation and inject new scientific and technological momentum into securing China’s food bowl.

In his address, Dr. Xingping Zhang stated that PUK-IAAS possesses world-class agricultural research equipment and facilities, and hopes to build an open and shared scientific research exchange platform through the Xiashan Conference to promote agricultural science and technology innovation and achievement transformation, contributing to sustainable agricultural development and to increasing farmers’ incomes!

 

The theme of the Third Xiashan Conference was “Gene Editing Boosts Agricultural Science and Technology Innovation”. The conference invited 14 well-known domestic and foreign experts, including Academicians Yaoguang Liu and Jian-Kang Zhu, to give presentations. In order of presentation, the speakers, their affiliations and their titles were as follows:

Yaoguang Liu (South China Agricultural University) “Plant synthetic biology technology and crop germplasm innovation”;

Chao Li (Nanjing Agricultural University) “Directed evolution and protein engineering of plant genome editing tools with enhanced activity”;

Yuming Lu (School of Agriculture and Biology, Shanghai Jiao Tong University) “From knock-out to knock-in: how to make gene expression designable”;

Chuanxiao Xie (Institute of Crop Sciences, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences) “Cutting-edge technology R&D and industrialization of maize biotech-breeding”;

Xiaomu Niu (BellaGen) “Towards commercialization of more productive, highly nutritious crops generated by gene editing”;

Genying Li (Shandong Academy of Agricultural Sciences) “Research and utilization of wheat gene-editing technology”;

Ronghong Liang (Institute of Genetics and Developmental Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences) “Development of a circular-RNA-based prime editing system”;

Tianmeng Zhao (Kevin Zhao, Qi Biodesign) “Development and application of precision base-editing technology”;

Pengcheng Wei (Anhui Agricultural University) “Gene editing and application of target and non-target herbicide-resistant genes in rice”;

Kabin Xie (Huazhong Agricultural University) “Optimization of homologous-recombination-based targeted gene knock-in technology”;

Hongliang Zhu (China Agricultural University) “Using gene editing to study tomato fruit ripening and quality regulation”;

Yanpeng Wang (Institute of Genetics and Developmental Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences) “Multidimensional plant gene-editing technology research and application”;

Lanqin Xia (Institute of Crop Sciences, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences) “Genome editing facilitates sustainable wheat production and population health”;

Jian-Kang Zhu (Southern University of Science and Technology) “How gene editing contributes to crop breeding”.

 

Four experts chaired the conference report sessions.

Invited speakers of the Third Xiashan Conference

 

Chairs of the Conference Report Sessions

 

New advances in editing-tool R&D: more precise, more efficient

The wide application of CRISPR-Cas9 technology has laid a solid foundation for plant gene editing, but scientists have not stopped there. At this conference, several research institutions showcased the results of gene-editing tool development. For example, the Caixia Gao team of the Institute of Genetics and Developmental Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, established the circular-RNA-based prime editing system CPE, solving the challenge of developing Cas12a prime editors; the Kabin Xie team of Huazhong Agricultural University developed the homologous-recombination-based targeted gene knock-in technology RBKI, which, with the help of a “molecular bridge”, raises the efficiency of HDR precise editing in plants to 72.2%; Qi Biodesign precision gene-editing system QBE raised C-to-T editing purity to 99.8%; the Yuming Lu team of Shanghai Jiaotong University developed the CasY7 gene knock-out and base-editing system, realizing independent intellectual-property rights for gene-knock-out and base-editing tools that can be applied to gene therapy and agricultural breeding; the Yanpeng Wang team of the Institute of Genetics and Developmental Biology used prime editing to achieve precise deletion and inversion of large genomic fragments.

 

Exploration of plant synthetic biology: from laboratory to field
The combination of synthetic biology and gene editing opens a new path for plant functional improvement. At the conference, the research team of Academician Yaoguang Liu of South China Agricultural University shared breakthroughs in functional rice development; through transgenic technology, astaxanthin was combined with the common food crop rice to develop “astaxanthin-rich red rice”. The Jian-Kang Zhu team of Southern University of Science and Technology and the Xiaomu Niu team of BellaGen Biotechnology also shared the creation, by gene-editing methods, of a series of functional foods such as soybean without beany flavor, high-GABA tomato, high-heme tomato, and nutritionally enhanced wheat.

 

Application of editing tools in plant breeding: accelerating variety improvement
Gene-editing technology is becoming the core tool in crop breeding. The Pengcheng Wei team of Anhui Agricultural University and the Chao Li team of Nanjing Agricultural University showcased herbicide-tolerant rice developed through gene-editing technology; the Hongliang Zhu team of China Agricultural University used gene-editing technology to regulate tomato fruit ripening and quality; the Lanqin Xia team and the Chuanxiao Xie team  of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences,, the Li Genying team of Shandong Academy of Agricultural Sciences, and the BellaGen team developed a series of products for high yield, quality and stress resistance in soybean, rice, maize and wheat. It is especially worth mentioning that gene editing can achieve multi-trait pyramiding and significantly shorten the breeding cycle.

 

Opportunities and dilemmas of industrial application of gene-edited products
Although gene-editing technology has achieved remarkable results in laboratory and field trials, its commercialization still faces multiple challenges. At the conference, many experts pointed out that regulations and public acceptance are currently the biggest obstacles. The country urgently needs to formulate more practical management measures so that this safe and efficient breeding technology can advance germplasm innovation and high-quality agricultural development in China and add technological wings to sustainable agriculture.

 

The “Xiashan Conference” uses Gordon Research Conferences and the “Xiangshan Science Conference” as models, striving to build a high-end science and technology forum with broad international influence. This Xiashan Conference arranged dedicated discussion time for every presentation, requiring speakers to limit their talks strictly to 25 minutes and leaving 15 minutes for full exchange and interaction. To guide the discussion, the conference required each presenter to list 3–5 questions for discussion, which received good results. The on-site discussion atmosphere was enthusiastic; delegates vied to ask questions and comment, carrying out in-depth discussions on many aspects of gene-editing technology, applications and regulations.

 

Case of questions listed for discussion by speakers (partial)

 

Delegates actively participate on-site discussion (partial cases)

 

After the academic reports on the afternoon of 31 May, the attendees visited the main research platforms of the institute, including cryo-electron microscopy, mass spectrometry analyzers, biotechnology platforms, phytotrons and smart glass greenhouses. Some expert delegates visited the Sunshine Mambo Tropical Rainforest Ecological Science Museum.

 

Visiting the institute

 

Visiting Sunshine Mambo Tropical Rainforest Ecological Science Museum

 

In the final session of this Xiashan Conference, a round-table discussion on the theme of “Gene Editing Boosts Agricultural Science and Technology Innovation” was held. Combining the stage and the floor, this thematic forum discussed a series of issues related to gene editing, including: how technological innovation of gene editing should focus on and make breakthroughs in patent-restricted technical fields; how gene-editing product development should focus on overcoming target traits that are difficult or impossible to achieve with conventional technologies; how gene-editing enterprises should integrate or cooperate with breeding enterprises (industry integration) to find new ways to promote gene-editing products; how to integrate gene editing with modern breeding processes to accelerate the development of gene-editing products and realize the transition from a commercialization model of “chassis variety + gene editing” to a model of “new varieties integrating gene-editing technology”; how to communicate with government and policy-makers to streamline the commercialization pathway of gene-edited variety improvement and simplify variety approval procedures; and how to conduct science popularization to increase public acceptance of gene-edited products.

 

Panel Discussion on “Gene Editing Boosts Agricultural Science and Technology Innovation”

 

At 2:00 p.m. on 1 June, the conference held its closing ceremony. Academician Jian-Kang Zhu, on behalf of the executive chairs, delivered the conference summary. Academician Zhu reviewed the gene-editing field and its research progress highlighted at the Xiashan Conference, looking forward to the promotion of gene-editing commerncialization. On behalf of the organizers, Academician Xing Wang Deng, Director of PKU-IAAS and Director of SLAASW, delivered the closing speech. He sincerely thanked the experts and delegates who sacrificed their Dragon Boat Festival long weekend and traveled from afar for their wholehearted participation over the two days, which made the conference a complete success. The conference will surely further advance the technological development and commercialization of gene editing, and he looks forward to various possible cooperation with the institute in the future.

 

Academicians Jian-Kang Zhu delivering the conference summary at the closing ceremony；Academician Xing Wang Deng delivering the closing speech

 

This conference drew a clear blueprint for the development and application of plant gene-editing technology. From technology R&D to commercialization, gene editing can bring unprecedented innovative germplasm to the seed industry and agricultural production. China’s gene-editing tools are continuously optimized and editing efficiency is constantly improved, which can play a unique and important role in increasing crop yield, enhancing crop resilience to stresses, and improving the nutritional value of agricultural products. However, the commercialization of gene-edited products is a crucial link; the variety approval after obtaining safety certificates is the bottleneck for commercialization of innovative products, and requires the joint efforts of policy-makers, scientists, enterprises and the public to remove the obstacles that hinder the timely commercialization of gene-edited products, so that science and technology can truly enhance the competitiveness of China’s agricultural industry.

The organizers of the Third Xiashan Conference sincerely thank the experts and delegates who attended the conference during the Dragon Boat Festival long weekend.

Contributed by: Secretariat of the Third Xiashan Conference (Xing Wang Deng, Xingping Zhang, Huawei Zhang, Yunbi Xu)