Cloned Plants Await Recognition in ShanghaiThe rapidly developed skills of cloning plants should have made the city more beautiful, however, it has not been widely accepted."Although we have gained much achievement in the study of cloning plants, few people in the market knew and accepted the technology," said Ling Yijia, general manager of the Shanghai Key Laboratory Co Ltd, which is a major cloning plants study base. During the past two years since the company was set up, experts coming from different local universities have discovered and studied the cloning secrets of some 60 kinds of flowers and plants, herbs and fruits. "Those plants are either precious species or on the verge of extinction," Ling said. Through cloning, Shanghai residents will see many rare plants in all seasons, which couldn't be grown in the city's climate before. The cloning will enrich the city because the company has devoted much to studying the secrets of evergreen plants for the city's greenery. "We especially look at psammophytes against sand storms and rank vegetations to deal with floods," Ling said. Experts extract cells from a mature plant to the tubes and cultivate new cells from the original ones. "The new cells can grow to young plants after about 20 days in the laboratory at the right temperature," said Yu Hexun, a professor in the company. "And then they were moved into the greenhouse." The young plants grow neatly in small plots of earth in the greenhouse, which are waiting for sales to flower farmers. However, few local farmers had any idea of cloning and the should-be contributions of the cloning technology have not been recognized by people. "Some farmers in other cities, such as Guangzhou in Guangdong Province, have known the technology and come to buy young plants from our company. However, Shanghai farmers usually bought those grown plants back from Guangzhou to the market, which increased the cost greatly," Ling said. She admitted that the company, sponsored by the government, has not enough money to promote them to the farmers. The company is seeking private or foreign partners, which are willing to provide funds and take advantage of the cloning technology used in the market. Sources: China Daily |
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