Xu Xun's personal experience.

Academician Xu Xun is the pioneer and founder of marine biological genetic engineering in China. She loves the Party and the socialist motherland, and resolutely supports the line, principles and policies of the Party since the Third Plenary Session of the Eleventh Central Committee. In the process of socialist modernization, with extensive knowledge, profound academic attainments and theoretical level, she worked tirelessly in the front line of marine scientific research, opened up a brand-new field of marine environmental genetic engineering in China, laid the foundation for the development of marine genetic engineering technology in China and made outstanding contributions.

The first marine genetic engineering laboratory

Academician Xu Xun founded the first marine genetic engineering laboratory in China. The Marine Biological Genetic Engineering Laboratory founded by Academician Xu Xun is the key laboratory of the State Oceanic Administration, and it has been renamed as the "Key Laboratory of Marine Biological Genetic Resources of the State Oceanic Administration". Under the leadership of Academician Xu Xun, the scientific and technological personnel in the laboratory have completed a number of national, provincial and bureau-level key research projects, which has enabled China's marine genetic engineering technology to develop rapidly. In 2002, in the evaluation of the expert group organized by the Ministry of Science and Technology, the key laboratories were rated as excellent, with the overall level leading in China and some reaching the international advanced level. At present, key laboratories are actively applying for the State Key Laboratory.

Academician Xu Xun has done pioneering work for the application of genetic engineering technology in mariculture. At first, she extracted and cloned the fish growth hormone gene from the pituitary gland of three marine fishes recruited by China. After years of efforts, she constructed a genetically engineered yeast with high expression for production. Its fermented products can promote the rapid growth of high-grade marine fish, and the appraisal Committee believes that this achievement has "entered the international advanced level". The experiment of cage culture shows that the feed containing the fermented product can increase the culture yield by more than 20%, which has great economic value. At present, this achievement has passed the acceptance of experts, and many companies at home and abroad are willing to cooperate in development. At the same time, fish growth hormone gene is the first marine biological gene with independent intellectual property rights in China.

Monitoring of pathogenic biological pollution in marine environment

Academician Xu Xun is the first person to apply genetic engineering technology to monitor pathogen pollution in marine environment. At 1995 and 1998 international academic conferences, Academician Xu Xun was invited to give a special report on "Application of molecular biology technology in marine environmental pollution research". The technology was appraised by the expert group as "the achievement reached the international advanced level, and the preparation method of TCA, the key technology, was internationally advanced". In recent years, the laboratory has used this technology to monitor the sea areas of Lvsi, Shandong, Fujian and other places for 11 voyages and dozens of stations, and made timely predictions of marine pathogen pollution, providing an important basis for prevention and control. In addition, in response to the global environmental strategy requirement of "giving priority to the research and development of monitoring technology for biological effects of heavy metal pollution" put forward by the effect expert group of UNESCO, she took the lead in establishing enzyme-labeled immunoassay technology in China to detect the marine biological effects of heavy metal pollution, which is an early and sensitive pollution monitoring technology. Because of Xu Xun's pioneering work in the important field of marine environmental monitoring, the American Institute of Marine Environment specially appointed her as its senior scientific adviser.

Genetic code of shrimp white spot baculovirus

The genetic code of shrimp white spot baculovirus (WSBV) was decoded for the first time in the world. Since 1993, shrimp disease has caused tens of billions of economic losses in China, and there is still no good strategy. Only by understanding the gene structure of its main pathogen-white spot baculovirus and revealing the mechanism of virus infection and proliferation can we take effective countermeasures. However, when shrimp cell culture is unsuccessful, it is difficult to purify virus directly from diseased shrimp tissues. Under the guidance of Academician Xu Xun, this work has made a major breakthrough. This laboratory is the first in the world to obtain the complete DNA of baculovirus. Subsequently, the detection technology of shrimp baculovirus gene was successfully established, with the sensitivity as high as 102, which can detect viruses in water environment, sediments, shrimp larvae, parent shrimps and feed, providing a powerful means for controlling shrimp culture environment, mastering virus infection routes and guiding prevention and control. More importantly, under her personal leadership, laboratory researchers determined the whole genome sequence of shrimp virus containing 300,000 base pairs through hard work, and took the lead in deciphering the genetic code of shrimp white spot baculovirus in the world. This achievement was rated as "1999 Top Ten Basic Science Research News in China" and "Top Ten Scientific and Technological Progress in China in 2000". This is the first time in the world to decipher the genetic structure of marine animal viruses, which provides the first model for human beings to understand the characteristics and mechanism of marine environmental viruses and lays the foundation for controlling marine viruses. Experts from the United States, Canada and other countries highly appreciated the visit and asked for cooperation. At the beginning of 1998, foreign gene structure experts made a special trip from the United States to China to evaluate the project, and gave a high evaluation. They took the initiative to intervene, and the Bioengineering Center of the Ministry of Science and Technology, the Northern Gene Center and American companies jointly invested 5 million yuan to complete all the genetic analysis work. At present, the level of this project is in the forefront of the world, which has established China's international academic leading position in this field.

Economic and social benefits

A series of scientific and technological achievements of Academician Xu Xun have potential economic and social benefits. Academician Xu Xun not only attaches great importance to applied basic research, but also attaches great importance to the transformation of scientific and technological achievements, and pays attention to the use of bioengineering technology to safeguard national interests and serve economic construction. Under her active promotion, the Third Institute of Oceanography of the State Oceanic Administration, the China Oceanographic Association and the Fujian Provincial Department of Science and Technology respectively established the "China Marine Biological Genetic Resources Research and Development Base" and the "Fujian Bioengineering Technology Research and Development Center" on the basis of the Key Laboratory of Marine Biological Genetic Resources, and devoted themselves to the transformation of scientific and technological achievements. At present, some scientific and technological achievements of key laboratories are being popularized and applied, and some are in the pilot stage, which is expected to have considerable prospects.

Academician Xu Xun, as a visiting scholar, worked in USCD Molecular Genetics Center of the University of California twice, established gene banks of various marine organisms, and discovered the original genes of human functional proteins from lower marine organisms. This new discovery is of great significance to the study of molecular evolution and has attracted international attention. St. Laigneau, then director of the Institute of Molecular Biology at the University of Texas, invited Academician Xu to take charge of his laboratory, and promised him generous treatment such as high salary, settling-in allowance and lifelong position. Much higher than her working conditions and treatment in China, but she was unmoved. Her first thought is not the salary and working environment, but that she knows that her career is in China, and she is a researcher trained by New China. Although she has made some achievements, everything in her personal life is inseparable from the cultivation and support of her motherland. She resolutely bid farewell to the United States and returned to China, fully expressing the intellectuals' sincere love for the socialist motherland under the leadership of China and their noble character of persistent pursuit of science in China.

Editor-in-chief books include "Experimental Guide to Marine Biological Genetic Engineering" and "DNA Recombination Technology".