During the Spring Festival, Fujian's abundant seafood products are exported to various places. Among them, fresh and plump green abalone has become the first choice for many family banquets as the "finale dish". Green disc abalone is a rare large abalone, weighing up to one pound each. Nowadays, in Fujian, this type of abalone has achieved large-scale aquaculture and has been well received by consumers since its launch. Weighing over a pound, I can't hold even one hand. Green disk abalone, a breakthrough new variety of abalone that can be called the "king of abalone" in China, was developed by Professor Ke Caihuan's team from the School of Oceanography and Earth Sciences at Xiamen University through breeding and improvement. Breaking through technological bottlenecks, this abalone has three characteristics: high temperature resistance, fast growth, and large size, which are highly recognized by farmers. On January 27th, Ke Caihuan told Science and Technology Daily reporters that the original abalone varieties in China were mainly medium-sized abalone introduced from the north to the south for breeding. The breeding cycle of this abalone is relatively long, usually only up to about 100 grams, and it has poor tolerance to high water temperatures in the southern summer, resulting in a higher mortality rate in summer. Ke Caihuan introduced that large size is an important indicator that reflects the high quality and value of abalone. The existing problems of abalone farming have seriously affected the stability and economic benefits of abalone farming, making it difficult to promote. Previously, high-end abalone ingredients were all large-sized abalone imported from Europe and America, which required a large amount of foreign exchange every year and had extremely high import prices. How to solve the three major "bottleneck" problems of small specifications, low survival rate in summer, and long breeding cycle in abalone farming industry, so that high-end abalone that used to be unattainable can "fly into ordinary people's homes"? Ke Caihuan led the team to innovate breeding ideas, starting from the actual needs of the abalone farming industry and expanding the range of hybrid breeding globally. In the end, the team selected two excellent abalone species from both sides of the Pacific Ocean for hybridization, successfully creating a set of distant hybridization breeding technology system for abalone. The entire hybrid breeding was compared between ten to twenty combinations, with thousands of experiments conducted Professor You Weiwei, a member of the team, recalled that after 11 years of effort, the team developed a new national approved variety of "Green Pangbao" using the wrinkled Pangbao obtained through 6-generation population breeding as the maternal parent and the green Pangbao introduced from the Americas in 2007 and obtained through continuous 4-generation population breeding as the paternal parent. The new variety has improved high temperature resistance by 2.26 ℃ and growth rate by 50% -100% compared to the original aquaculture variety. It retains the delicate taste of wrinkled abalone and has the size of green abalone. Its growth size is also more than twice that of ordinary abalone, and 30% of abalone can grow to over 500 grams. As soon as the green abalone was launched, it was warmly welcomed by the industry, and the coverage of high-quality varieties quickly increased. At present, green abalone has become the dominant variety in China's abalone breeding industry, with a coverage rate of 70% for green abalone and its derived varieties. Driven by the demonstration of new national approved varieties such as green disc abalone developed by Professor Ke Caihuan's team, China's abalone aquaculture production reached 245000 tons in 2024, with a direct output value exceeding 20 billion yuan. Grasping the germplasm "chip" germplasm resources is the foundation and source of new variety cultivation, and the cooperation of industry, academia, and research injects strong impetus into the cultivation of high-quality abalone varieties. Starting from several breeding ponds, to having a breeding workshop of 3500 square meters... In recent years, with the joint efforts of both schools and enterprises, Jinjiang Fuda Abalone Aquatic Products Co., Ltd. located in Jinjing Town, Jinjiang City, known as the "Abalone Characteristic Town", has built the most complete genetic material and strongest seed production ability germplasm resource bank for abalone in China. The germplasm bank currently preserves 4 species of abalone, 4 new national abalone varieties, 33 selected strains, and over 320 families, providing a solid germplasm guarantee for the continuous development of new abalone varieties Dr. Luo Xuan from the Xiamen University team said that after years of hard work, the Xiamen University team has collaborated with Jinjiang Fuda Abalone Aquatic Products Co., Ltd. to carefully create a live abalone germplasm resource bank and carry out breeding of high-quality varieties, achieving a "win-win" situation for both the university and the enterprise. The new variety of green abalone and its derivative good variety "Green Hybrid" have solved the three major bottlenecks in the development of China's abalone industry, broken the monopoly of foreign abalone in the large abalone market, and effectively promoted the high-quality development of China's abalone industry. At the same time, the new variety of green abalone has also given rise to two new industries, domestic soft boiled dried abalone and abalone pearl. Among them, Professor Ke Caihuan's team used green abalone to cultivate the first batch of abalone pearls in China, opening up a new path for the development of the abalone industry. In 2020, the green abalone was named one of the top ten new products in China's agriculture and rural areas, and was the only aquatic new product selected that year; In 2023, the green abalone was selected as the national agricultural main promoted variety. Firmly grasping the germplasm "chip" not only brings abalone, including large-sized abalone, to the dining tables of ordinary people, but also makes the "blue granary" of the ocean more abundant. In 2024, the Xiamen University team has developed a new high-temperature resistant national approved variety of wrinkled abalone called "Fuhai 1" based on the characteristics of the abalone farming industry. It is expected to provide high-quality seeds to alleviate the high mortality rate of abalone farming in Fujian during summer. Next, we not only need to cultivate abalone varieties with high food efficiency to improve feed conversion rate and reduce breeding costs, but also focus on quality breeding research on abalone such as taste and texture When it comes to the future development of abalone breeding, Ke Caihuan is full of confidence. (New Society)