Jiangxi Engineering Laboratory for the Development and Utilization of Agricultural Microbial Resources (hereinafter referred to as "the Laboratory") was approved for establishment in 2014. The Laboratory is oriented towards bioactivity and combines traditional and modern high-throughput screening technologies to conduct screening and breeding of agricultural microbial resources. It aims to establish culture collections in areas such as biopesticides, bioconversion of agricultural waste, and bioremediation of farmland pollutants. Focusing on the industrialization development system of agricultural microbial resources, the Laboratory applies modern microbiology, molecular biology, fermentation regulation, and biochemical engineering theories and technologies. It studies the commonalities and key technologies of products in the agricultural microbial industry, as well as the fundamental theories and mechanisms involved. By integrating and introducing domestic and international research outcomes and technologies in agricultural microbiology, the Laboratory aims to develop quality control process flows that can be adapted for agricultural science and technology enterprises of various scales and technical levels. It also seeks to improve the agricultural microbial product testing technology system in the province and make it accessible to enterprises both within and outside the province.
The Laboratory currently has 21 main researchers, including 8 senior professionals and 7 associate senior professionals, all holding doctoral degrees. It boasts 1 national-level talent, 9 provincial-level talents, and 10 university-level talents. In recent years, it has undertaken 80 various vertical and horizontal projects, including 32 national-level research projects, 40 provincial-level research projects, and 8 other projects. The Laboratory has published over 300 academic papers in SCI, EI, and Class A journals, has been granted 20 national invention patents, and has received 5 science and technology achievement awards from Jiangxi Province.
The main research directions include the development and utilization of agricultural microbial resources, microbial degradation and transformation of environmental pollutants, synthetic biology and metabolic engineering, research and utilization of animal gut microbiomes, gene and enzyme function analysis, and bioinformatics development and utilization. The engineering laboratory comprises research facilities for high-throughput screening of agricultural microbial resources, physicochemical and molecular breeding, evaluation of microbial active substances and quality control, metabolic regulation and fermentation process control, and fermentation product separation and preparation.
The Laboratory is equipped with a gradient PCR instrument, fluorescent quantitative PCR instrument, gel imaging analysis system, fully automated enzyme labeling instrument, protein purification system, automated agar plate dispensing system, single-cell separation and extraction system, inverted fluorescence microscope, fluorescence microscope, high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) system, gas chromatography (GC) system, various types of incubators and shakers, small-scale fermentation tanks of various specifications, a 1000-liter fully automated fermentation tank, and a multifunctional pilot line for the extraction of fermentation products.
