Chapter 243 Microenvironment

Chapter 243 Microenvironment

Chapter 243 Microenvironment

Jiang Miao watched today's airship test.

Before leaving, he instructed Wan Gaofeng, the head of the airship company, "Gao Feng, although the safety design can prevent the hydrogen airbag from exploding, necessary safety tests must still be carried out."

After understanding his boss' instructions, Wan Gaofeng nodded and said, "I understand, but the Lufeng airship test base is not suitable for testing. I suggest that we wait until the construction of the Minqin base is completed in September and set up a safety test center in the desert around Minqin."

"Okay, you guys decide!"

In order to ensure safety, it is estimated that more than a dozen full-size airships will have to be blown up before we can figure out the true safety of the airships in the event of an emergency.

These tests will cost hundreds of millions.

However, these investments are necessary costs.

When Jiang Miao came back, the sun was setting.
On the road, the evening breeze blew gently, bringing a hint of coolness to the hot July.

On the road from Lufeng back to the urban area, he could occasionally see many vehicles transporting lychee and longan wood on the roadside.

Since May, due to the great success of Hailufeng Company's new technology durian, many local farmers have begun to seek cooperation.

These longan and lychee trees are all from farmers who have switched to growing durian. They cut down the lychee and longan trees in the old orchard and then sold the wood to timber buyers. Usually these lychee and longan trees are resold to charcoal factories to make charcoal, or directly sold to catering workshops that make roast goose and roast pork.

Of course, Hailufeng generally does not cooperate with small farmers to grow durian, mainly because it is difficult to manage.

Typically, the company will cooperate with local cooperatives, agricultural companies, and large farmers.

In fact, there are not many people in rural areas now, and many families have moved to towns and cities, which is more conducive to the work of merged management.

Many farmers rent orchards and sloping land from friends and relatives who have moved to the city, and by pooling their resources together they can reach the minimum standard for signing a cooperation agreement, which is 10 acres.

After all, the previous planting model was too difficult to manage. The plots were very small and scattered, and it would waste a lot of manpower and resources for Hailufeng Company to send agricultural technicians to provide guidance.

The company's agricultural cooperation division has made a very detailed division of the two durian growing areas of Shanmei and Qiongzhou.

For example, Shanmei is divided into the following areas based on season and region:
Summer area (May-September): urban area, Gongping Town and Luhe County.

Autumn and winter area (August to December): Haifeng area.

Winter and spring zone (January to May): Lufeng area.

These planting areas can be regulated through special chemicals to allow durian to bloom and bear fruit regularly, ensuring that durian is produced locally all year round.

In fact, it is better to cut down the local lychees and longans. Jiang Miao’s family used to grow lychees and longans. Lychees and longans have alternate years, and picking them is very time-consuming and labor-intensive, so they can basically only be picked by manpower.

Moreover, the local lychee and longan varieties in Shanmei are not competitive.

For example, in a good year, the purchase price of some varieties of lychees is only a few cents; but in a bad year, although the purchase price of lychees is a few yuan, the output is not high, and there may even be no harvest at all.

In addition, there are fewer and fewer young laborers in rural areas, the older generation is no longer able to work, and young people feel that growing lychees and longans is not profitable. Many local lychee and longan orchards are actually in a semi-wild state.

It just so happens that the economic situation outside has been bad in recent years, and many young people have been forced to return home. Now the local agriculture has switched to growing durian, which has absorbed a large number of young people returning home.

When Jiang Miao saw these lychee and longan trees, he couldn't help but think of something.

That is the scientific research department of Hailufeng Company, which launched the litchi genetically modified rootstock project and the longan genetically modified rootstock project in April this year.

Genetically modified rootstock technology can be artificially set to have extremely strong drought and low temperature resistance, and at the same time have special nutrient storage roots that can support fruit trees and economic trees to bloom and bear fruit all year round.

Especially in Lingnan, where the temperature is almost never zero all year round, it is possible to have a harvest in all twelve months of the year.

This technique is very useful.

Taking litchi as an example, if the time of flowering and fruiting is not artificially adjusted through genetically modified rootstocks, domestic litchi will be concentrated on the market in summer every year.

This seasonal fruit brings two big problems.

The first problem is that concentrated listing brings the risk of stampedes, especially in bumper years, when fruit farmers face price pressure from buyers and have no room for resistance at all.

The second problem is the concentration of risks. The main lychee producing areas in China are in Lingnan, Guangxi, Fujian, and Qiongzhou, namely the F4 area in South China. This area is prone to typhoons. When lychees are on the market in summer, it is easy to encounter typhoons, causing heavy losses to fruit farmers.

These two problems can be solved through genetically modified rootstock technology. As long as the flowering and fruiting seasons are dispersed, the risks will also be dispersed.

At the same time, the market price of litchi will be leveled and there will not be too serious fluctuations.

This is beneficial for both growers and consumers.

Jiang Miao did not participate deeply in the development of litchi genetically modified rootstocks and longan genetically modified rootstocks. He mainly did technical guidance work. After all, the genetically modified rootstock technology has formed a relatively mature technology within the scientific research department of Hailufeng Company. With the help of the Nuwa system and Jiang Miao's guidance, relatively mature genetically modified rootstocks can generally be obtained in two or three years.

At present, Jiang Miao's energy is mainly focused on breeding new varieties, as well as transgenic pistachio rootstocks and transgenic cherry rootstocks.

Among the new varieties he is working on, in addition to the rubber grass and soybeans he has been cultivating, are the sugarcane and cassava he has previously studied.

In addition, he also assigned several tasks to the transgenic rootstock laboratory, including using mature kapok transgenic rootstocks as a basis to study grafted kapok; studying oil-tea transgenic rootstocks; and studying citrus transgenic rootstocks.

Among these breeding research projects, some are still struggling, while others have already achieved fruitful results.

For example, the sugarcane breeding project.

Since it is a project led by Jiang Miao himself, the progress of this project is very fast. Starting from the first generation of sugarcane varieties last year, the fourth generation of sugarcane varieties have been bred through gene-directed screening.

Three of the sugarcane varieties are already being planted on an experimental basis.

The three varieties were named: Muzhe No. 1, Muzhe No. 2, and Muzhe No. 3.

There is a reason why it is named "sugarcane".

Theoretically, the maximum sugar content of sugarcane is about 30%. Among the common sugarcane varieties on the market, such as Yunzhe 081609, the highest sugar content can reach 19.2%.

So why can't sugarcane break through the 30% sugar content limit? The reason is that too high a sugar content will cause cell dehydration. Organisms instinctively resist the evolution of a sugar content exceeding 30% because this is not in line with the evolutionary trend of biological survival.

Jiang Miao naturally knew this.

Therefore, his solution has three directions: high yield, results, and specialization.

As a result, during a series of cultivation processes, Jiang Miao discovered that there is an upper limit to the yield of sugarcane per mu. Even if there is sufficient water, fertilizer, light and heat, the yield of sugarcane per mu is only about 18 tons, and it is difficult to break this limit.

In the cultivation of the result group, there was also no way. Even if he used many original species of wild sugarcane, he still couldn't cultivate a variety with high sugar content and high fruit yield per mu.

On the contrary, in the specialized group, a special bud mutation appeared during a series of induced mutations. This special bud mutation is the origin of the maternal plant of the sugarcane series.

The sugarcane series has changed the grass nature of sugarcane. The lignin content in its stems has soared, and its lignin is almost the same as that of another giant of the grass family - bamboo.

This evolutionary process has made the stems of sugarcane become similar to bamboo, forming a hollow structure inside the stems.

However, unlike bamboo, the interior of the sugarcane node is not truly hollow, but has become a structure for storing sugar and water.

Moreover, the stem diameter of specialized sugarcane will continue to grow. In the 1500-acre experimental field, the stem diameter of sugarcane that has been planted for half a year has generally grown to about 7 centimeters and is still growing.

In addition, the roots and leaves of sugarcane will become abnormally developed like bamboo, almost firmly rooted in the soil; the leaves will become smaller and denser.

How to harvest the sugarcane?

The answer is no harvesting is needed.

Instead, the method is similar to collecting maple syrup water in the north. You only need to drill holes in the sugarcane nodes under the sugarcane, install stainless steel sealing interfaces, and then use pumping equipment to continuously extract the sugary solution from the sugarcane.

On average, the sugar cane can be extracted once a month, and each extraction lasts about 3 days. Currently, about 600 kilograms of sugar liquid can be extracted from each acre of sugarcane each time, and the sugar content of this sugar liquid is about 24%.

At present, each mu of cane can produce 7200 kg of sugar liquid and 1728 kg of sucrose per year. According to the monthly yield measurement by the technicians at the experimental planting base, the yield of sugar liquid per mu of cane is showing an increasing trend.

Jiang Miao observed through the identification panel that the diameter of the sugarcane stems can generally grow to about 15 centimeters, and the annual sugar liquid yield per mu may reach about 2 kilograms.

It is easier to use sugar liquid to extract sucrose than to use sugarcane to press it. There is no need for decolorization or filtering impurities. It can be sent directly to the production line for concentration, and then white sugar can be produced.

As long as the stainless steel interface is arranged in advance, the sugar liquid can be pumped out regularly every month, which saves a large part of the labor cost of cutting sugarcane.

According to the data obtained from the identification panel, the high yield of sugarcane can last for about 15 to 20 years. In the later stage, when new species are replaced, the wood can also be sold. After all, the structure of sugarcane is almost the same as that of bamboo, and the stems are very thick, so they can be used as bamboo.

There are three other benefits to growing sugarcane.

First, sugarcane is more suitable for slopes and mountains because it does not need to be harvested. It only requires using plastic hoses to connect stainless steel joints, taking advantage of the height difference between slopes and mountains, and saving electricity for extracting sugar liquid.

Secondly, it is beneficial to the production of sugar mills. After all, sugarcane can be produced almost all year round in South China, and sugar mills do not need to worry about the sugar-making season.

Thirdly, it is conducive to transportation. The transportation of solid sugarcane requires manpower or mechanical lifting, while the liquid sugar solution is directly pumped out by a water pump and then transported to the sugar factory by tank trucks.

In addition, the sugar yield per mu of sugarcane is much higher than that of sugarcane.

For example, Guangxi Province, which is the main sugar cane producing area in China, plants about 1130 million mu of sugar cane every year, with an annual output of between 600 million tons and 700 million tons of sugar cane.

If sugarcane is planted instead, the 1130 million mu of land can theoretically produce about 1900 million tons of sugar in the initial stage. When it reaches the peak yield period, it can theoretically produce about 5424 million tons of sugar.

You should know that in recent years, the annual production of domestic sugar cane has been only more than 8 million tons.

The advantages of switching to sugarcane are too great.

It is estimated that traditional sugarcane can only be used to produce fruit in the future, and its status as a sugar crop will most likely plummet.

There are so many benefits of sugarcane, but considering the risks, one or two planting areas must be set up in the F4 areas of South China to avoid being wiped out by typhoons or extreme weather.

But Guangxi Province is definitely the main planting area.

Although it is still in the experimental planting stage, Hailufeng Company has already established a subsidiary responsible for sugar production, namely Nanguo Sugar Industry.

Nan Guo Sugar Liquid has been deployed in Leizhou Peninsula and Guangxi Province. It is expected that hundreds of thousands of acres will be planted as an experiment by the end of this year, and a sugar factory is also under construction.

As the fleeting roadside scenery flashed by.

Jiang Miao's convoy returned to Magong Town.

Just came back, Shuya was holding her daughter and chatting with her senior brother Luo Yulin in the living room.

As he put on his slippers, he asked, "Yulin, how are you doing recently?"

Luo Yulin immediately stood up and said, "Boss, I came here today mainly to report something."

"Sit down, you're welcome." Jiang Miao sat down, picked up the Phoenix Dancong tea poured by Li Wenna and took a sip.

Luo Yulin took his seat without delay. He handed over a document and explained his purpose directly: "The new antibiotic that we started researching last year has completed the cultivation of high-yield strains and the antibiotic extraction production process. The clinical trial laboratory has also completed animal experiments and is currently applying for human trials."

Putting down the teacup, Jiang Miao picked up the document and looked through it for a while.

When he saw the clinical trial report, he suddenly raised his eyebrows, then raised his head and asked: "Yulin, have you heard about this 3047 group animal experiment?"

"Boss, this is one of the reasons why I came here to report." Luo Yulin pointed to that page of the report: "During the experiment, the clinical trial laboratory found that the drug can destroy the tumor microenvironment, allowing the immune system in the mice to re-recognize tumor cells and kill them."

"This shouldn't be the result of the new antibiotics, right?" Jiang Miao said as he looked.

Luo Yulin nodded and replied, "Boss, you are very good at predicting things. We have repeated the experiments many times in collaboration with the clinical trial laboratory, and finally found that it was a byproduct of the bacteria that caused damage to part of the tumor microenvironment."

At this time, Jiang Miao had already turned to the part that Luo Yulin talked about.

The compound is a mutated protein produced as a byproduct of the bacteria under high temperatures.

Its mechanism of action is to combine with some cells, turning them into "foreign bodies", which in turn causes the organism's immune system to attack these "alienated cells", and finally eliminate these "alienated cells" through the body's own immunity.

However, this specific mutant protein does not have the infectious properties for all cells.

From the report, Luo Yulin's team studied the mutant protein in detail and found that the production mechanism of this mutant protein is very special and has a lot to do with the raw materials of the bacterial culture medium.

They tried several different biological culture media and found that as long as they used raw materials similar to HeLa cells as culture medium, they could produce mutant proteins that specifically infect cancer cells.

This customized version is a mutant protein. After intravenous injection, it will quickly infect cancer cells in the body but will not infect normal cells. After being infected, the cancer cells will quickly be "alienated" and then recognized by the immune system.

Moreover, after the mutant protein infects cancer cells, it will interfere with the self-replication of cancer cells, thus preventing the cancer cells from proliferating rapidly.

The report also mentioned that Luo Yulin's team tried to use normal mouse cells as culture medium. The mutated protein cultivated in this way, after being injected back into the mice through vein, would infect normal cells, but because this protein had no ability to replicate itself, it would only cause severe allergic reactions in the body.

In addition, many experiments are also conducted in the clinical trial laboratory.

For example, using surgical assistance to directly inject this protein into the tumor area can effectively utilize the properties of this protein.

For some visceral tumors, surgically assisted injection can efficiently and quickly infect tumor cells.

Especially for tumors in the brain, such as diffuse gliomas, due to the blood-brain barrier, the mutant protein injected intravenously generally cannot enter the brain. This will cause the mutant protein to be unable to effectively infect brain tumors, and surgical intervention must be used to assist injection.

Jiang Miao looked carefully at the report on the infection and treatment effects of various tumors.

Even pancreatic cancer and diffuse glioma, which are known as terminal illnesses, will be killed by the body's immune system within two to three weeks after being infected by mutant proteins injected through intervention.

The cancer survival rate of mice used in the experiment was as high as 93%.

If assisted by surgical resection, the survival rate can be greatly increased.

Especially for those larger tumors, they must be removed through surgery to be better treated.

The presence of mutant proteins means there is no need to worry about cancer cells spreading throughout the body, because cancer cells that leave the core of the tumor are more easily infected by mutant proteins.

If those extra-large tumors are not removed surgically, although the mutant protein will quickly infect the interior of the tumor, the immune system's frantic attack on the tumor can easily lead to severe local inflammatory reactions, and even pus and blood may burst in the body.

Some of the mice that died in the experiment died because pus and blood from the tumor leaked into their internal organs, causing severe shock and infection.

Jiang Miao put down the document and ordered: "This discovery is very valuable, Yulin."

"Boss, please give me your instructions."

"You and the clinical trial laboratory should speed up your research and complete the application for human trials as soon as possible. I will push for the approval of human trials."

"Okay." Luo Yulin was delighted: "Boss, please give this mutant protein a name!"

"Since it was your team that discovered it, make your own decision!" Jiang Miao didn't care about this kind of thing.

However, Luo Yulin was very persistent: "Boss, our team hopes that you can name this mutant protein."

"Is that so?" Jiang Miao thought for a moment and said, "Let's call it Yulin Protein!"

"Isn't this bad?" Luo Yulin waved his hands quickly.

Jiang Miao said directly: "Let's just settle it like this! In many foreign countries, the names of inventors and discoverers are often used as names, so don't be polite."

"Thank you for your cultivation, boss." Luo Yulin was very excited and very grateful to Jiang Miao in his heart.

(End of this chapter)