“Breakthrough achieved in the cultivation of ”biodiesel” plants in Jiangsu

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Recently, research on salt-tolerant economic plants conducted on saline-alkali land within dikes in Dafeng County, Jiangsu Province, saw breakthroughs in both seed germination and direct-seeding cultivation trials of American seamallow. This opens up broad prospects for improving China’s coastal marshlands in the future, developing salt-affected soil agriculture, and exploiting the new energy source of \"biodiesel\". 　　Malva maritima is a perennial herbaceous plant that naturally grows along the salt marsh coastlines from Delaware to Texas in the eastern United States. Its seeds contain levels of oil and crude protein similar to those of soybean, an important economic crop; they are also rich in calcium and potassium, giving them a highly balanced nutritional profile, which makes them a valuable source of oil and feed. Since 1993, researchers at the Institute of Biotechnology at Nanjing University have conducted a series of ecological studies on Abutilon maritimum introduced from the United States. They carried out seed germination experiments as well as direct-seeding and seedling cultivation experiments in the experimental garden of Nanjing University and on the saline-alkali lands within dikes in Dafeng County, Jiangsu Province. It is reported that the yield per mu of Malva maritima, which was originally only 50 kilograms, has now reached 100 kilograms thanks to scientific research efforts, offering good prospects for industrialization. 　　Currently, the research on \"polygenic breeding of salt-tolerant economic plants – Abutilon maritimum\" has been designated as an **863 Program project**. Researchers are employing molecular markers along with techniques related to major gene detection to carry out polygenic breeding studies on Abutilon maritimum, with the aim of increasing the yield per mu to 300 kilograms.