Chinese researchers employ space-breeding to cultivate new rosa roxburghii varieties

GUIYANG -- Chinese researchers have cultivated new varieties of rosa roxburghii from 528 plantlets growing from 28.2 grams of seeds that had been aboard the Shenzhou XV manned spaceship in space for 186 days. Rosa roxburghii, or Cili, meaning "thorn pear" in Chinese, is a yellowish, spiny fruit renowned for its rich vitamin C content and various nutritional benefits. For the first time, researchers obtained four plantlets with distinctive shapes, two of which are thorn-free and have markedly different leaf shapes compared with typical thorn pears, according to local authorities in Qiannan Buyi and Miao autonomous prefecture, Southwest China's Guizhou province. To shorten the breeding process, researchers are adopting certain methods to reproduce the plantlets while carrying out tissue culture experiments on thorn-free varieties, said researcher Tian Hualin.