Today, the Basic Research Management Center of the Ministry of Science and Technology released the 2018 China Science Progress.Ten major scientific advances have been selected, including the successful cloning of macaques based on somatic cell nuclear transfer technology, the creation of artificial single chromosome eukaryotic cells, the revelation of depression occurrence and rapid anti depression mechanisms, the development of intelligent DNA nanorobots for tumor treatment, the measurement of high-precision gravitational constant G values to date, the direct detection of electron cosmic ray energy spectra around 1TeV, the revelation of atomic structure and illusion effects of hydrated ions, the creation of nanoscale and millisecond scale imaging technologies that can detect intracellular structural interactions, the regulation of plant growth metabolism balance to achieve sustainable agricultural development, and the advancement of human life on the Loess Plateau to 2.12 million years ago.

It is reported that the selection activity of "China's Scientific Progress" is led by the Basic Research Management Center of the Ministry of Science and Technology, and has been successfully held for 14 sessions so far. Its aim is to promote the major scientific progress of basic research in China, inspire the scientific enthusiasm and dedication of the vast number of scientific and technological workers, carry out basic research popularization propaganda, promote public understanding, care and support for basic research, and create a good scientific atmosphere in the whole society.

In December 2018, the Basic Research Management Center of the Ministry of Science and Technology organized a preliminary selection meeting for China's scientific progress. According to the distribution of recommended disciplines for scientific progress, it was divided into four groups: mathematical and astronomical science, chemistry and materials science, earth and environmental science, and life and medical science. Experts were invited to select 30 items from the recommended scientific progress for final selection. In the final election, more than 2600 experts and scholars, including academicians of the CAS Member, CAE Member, 973 Program advisory group and experts in the advisory group, 973 Program scientists, directors of State Key Laboratory, and some national key research and development programs, were invited to vote online on 30 candidate scientific progress, and the scientific progress ranking * in the number of votes was selected as "2018 China's Scientific Progress".

The reporter learned from the Basic Research Management Center of the Ministry of Science and Technology that the brief introduction of China's scientific progress in 2018 is as follows:

1. Successfully cloned macaques based on somatic cell nuclear transfer technology

Non human primates are animals closely related to humans. Due to the ability to mass produce animal models with consistent genetic backgrounds and no chimerism in the short term, somatic cell cloning technology is considered the best method for constructing non-human primate gene modified animal models. Since the report on cloning sheep "Dolly" in 1997, although several laboratories have attempted to clone monkeys using somatic cells, they have not been successful. The research team of Sun Qiang and Liu Zhen from the Institute of Neuroscience of the Chinese Academy of Sciences/Brain Science and Intelligent Technology Innovation Center successfully obtained two healthy and viable somatic cloned monkeys after five years of research. Their research found that the combined use of histone H3K9me3 demethylase Kdm4d and TSA can significantly improve the in vitro blastocyst development rate of cloned embryos and the pregnancy rate of recipients after transplantation. On this basis, they used fetal monkey fibroblasts as donor cells for nuclear transfer and successfully obtained two healthy surviving cloned monkeys by transferring the cloned embryos to surrogate recipients; And utilizing cumulus granulosa cellsIn the nuclear transfer experiment for donor cell nuclei, although two full-term individuals were also obtained, these two monkeys died quickly. Genetic analysis confirms that the nuclear DNA of cloned monkeys produced in the above two situations originates from donor cells, while mitochondrial DNA originates from oocyte donor monkeys. The success of somatic cell cloning of monkeys is a breakthrough in this field from scratch. This technology will provide more convenient and technological means for gene editing operations in non-human primates, making non-human primates a widely applicable animal model, and promoting the rapid development of primate reproductive development, biomedical, cognitive science, and brain disease mechanisms research. Nikos K. Logothetis, a member of the German Academy of Sciences, commented on "Cloning NHP: A major milestone in basic and biomedical research," stating that this work demonstrates the feasibility of cloning macaques using somatic cell nuclei, breaks down technical barriers, and opens up a new era of using non-human primates as experimental models. It is a truly exciting milestone in the field of biomedical research.

Create * artificial single chromosome eukaryotic cells

Eukaryotic cells generally contain multiple chromosomes, such as 46 in humans, 40 in mice, 8 in fruit flies, and 24 in rice. Whether the chromosome numbers of these naturally evolved eukaryotes can be artificially altered and whether a single chromosome eukaryote with normal function can be artificially created is a cutting-edge scientific question in the field of life sciences. Qin Chongjun and Xue Xiaoli's research team, Zhao Guoping's research team, Zhou Jinqiu's research team of the Institute of Biochemistry and Cell Biology, Wuhan Feisha Gene Information Co., Ltd. and other teams of the Molecular Plant Science Innovation Center of the Chinese Academy of Sciences/Institute of Plant Physiology and Ecology cooperate totrueUsing nuclear brewing yeast as the research material, synthetic biology "engineering" methods and enabling technologies were employed to artificially create a simplified life form that does not exist in nature - eukaryotic cells containing only a single chromosome. This study suggests that natural complex life systems can be simplified through artificial intervention, and even new forms of life that do not exist in nature can be artificially created. Nature, The Scientist, and other publications suggest that this may be a major genomic reconstruction, core brain mechanism, and provide scientific basis for the development of fast, non-toxic antidepressant drugs. two hundred and oneThese genetically modified yeast strains are powerful resources for studying important concepts in chromosome biology, including chromosome replication, recombination, and isolation.

3. Revealing the occurrence of depression and the mechanism of rapid antidepressant treatment

Depression seriously damages the physical and mental health of patients and is an important cause of modern social violence, causing huge losses to society and families. However, traditional antidepressants take effect slowly (6-8 weeks or more) and only take effect in about 20% of patients, indicating that the current understanding of the mechanisms of depression has not yet reached its core. In recent years, it has been unexpectedly discovered in clinical practice that anesthetics * * have rapid (within 1 hour) and (effective in 70% of refractory patients) antidepressant effects at low doses, which is considered an important discovery in the field of mental illness for nearly half a century. However, * * is addictive, has significant side effects, and cannot be used for a long time. Therefore, understanding the mechanism of rapid antidepressant treatment has become the "holy grail" in the field of depression research, as it will reveal the 8-year history of depression. Hu Hailan's research group at Zhejiang University School of Medicine has made breakthrough progress in this field: in the study of the neural circuits of depression, the research group found that the activity of neurons in the anti reward center of the brain - the lateral habenula nucleus - is the source of depressive emotions. The neurons in this region suppress the activity of the pleasure producing "reward center" in the brain through their special high-frequency dense "clustered discharges". Through the technique of optogenetics, they directly demonstrated that clustered discharges in the nucleus accumbens are sufficient conditions for inducing behavioral manifestations such as despair and loss of pleasure in animals. Regarding the molecular mechanism of depression, the research team found that this clustered discharge pattern is mediated by NMDAR type glutamate receptors. As a blocker of NMDAR, the pharmacological mechanism of action is to inhibit the clustered discharge of neurons in the nucleus accumbens,Quickly release its inhibition on downstream reward centers, thereby achieving the effect of improving emotions in a very short period of time. At the same time, the research team has provided a more in-depth explanation of the cellular and molecular mechanisms that generate clustered discharges. Through high-throughput quantitative protein mass spectrometry technology, they found that the formation of depression is accompanied by overexpression of potassium ion channel Kir4.1 in glial cells. The regulation of depression by Kir4.1 channel is rooted in the histological basis of the dense wrapping of neurons by glial cells in the nucleus accumbens. In the narrow interface of neuronal glial cell interaction, overexpression of Kir4.1 on glial cells leads to a decrease in potassium ion concentration outside the neurons, inducing hyperpolarization and activation of T-VSCC calcium channels, ultimately resulting in NMDAR mediated clustered discharges. The above research provides a systematic explanation of the mechanism of depression as a major disease, overturning the popular "monoamine hypothesis" on the core mechanism of depression in the past, and providing new scientific basis for the development of alternative drugs and the avoidance of side effects such as addiction. At the same time, the NMDAR, Kir4.1 potassium channels, T-VSCC calcium channels identified by the research institute can serve as molecular targets for rapid antidepressant treatment, providing new ideas for the development of more and better antidepressant drugs or intervention techniques, which is of great significance for ultimately overcoming depression. Journals such as Science and Scientific American have reported on this work, stating that it is an astonishing discovery.