On December 9, 2022, invited by the Horticultural Research Institute, SAAS, Prof. Dr. Richard G. F. Visser, elected member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences and vice president of the Wageningen University & Research made a presentation named "Precision breeding methods and techniques". More than 70 SAAS scientists and students participated in this seminar.

Prof. Dr. Visser introduced the composition and research direction of the Plant Breeding Center of Wageningen University & Research and the challenges to agricultural production by energy, food and water crises caused by the significant changes in the world. He emphasized the importance of the diversity of crop plants. Compared with traditional breeding methods such as hybridization and grafting, the precision breeding shortened the breeding time and made target genome modification on crop plants. The precision breeding could be achieved by introducing foreign genes, mutation, or DNA modification. Taking the disease-resistant breeding of potato late blight as an example, through editing the inactive R gene, screening disease-resistant varieties, and checking whether there were off-target effects, precise disease-resistant breeding for potato late blight could be realized.

After the presentation, the SAAS scientists discussed the specific challenges they encountered in the breeding process with Prof. Dr. Visser in detail. Standing at the macro level of precision breeding, this seminar provides profound insights on efficient and high-level breeding work for us.