In 2022, the numbers of original research articles published by Chinese plant scientists in mainstream plant science journals increased significantly compared with that in 2021, and important advances have been made in the fields of preventing “polyspermy fertilization” mechanisms, extracellular pH receptors, chloroplast protein transport channel structures, mechanisms of crop yield, quality, stress tolerance, disease resistance, and symbiotic nitrogen fixation, the origin and evolution mechanisms of self-incompatibility in angiosperms, and the evolution of sugarcane and maize germplasm resources. Among them, “New Mechanisms for Mining and Regulating High Temperature Resistance Genes in Rice” was selected as one of the “Top Ten Advances in Life Sciences in China” in 2022. Here we summarize the achievements of plant science research in China in 2022, by briefly introducing 30 representative important research advances and sorting out the experimental materials used in plant science research, so as to help readers understand the trend of plant science development in China, and evaluate future research direction to meet national needs.

In 2021, the numbers of original research articles published by Chinese plant scientists in international multidisciplinary journals and mainstream plant science journals increased significantly compared with that in 2020, and important advances have been made in the fields of male and female cell recognition and fertilization, stem cell fate determination, mycorrhizal symbiosis, photosynthetic membrane protein complex, nitrogen and phosphorus nutrient utilization, innate immunity, crop de novo domestication and genome design. Among them, ‘rapid de novo domestication of allotetraploid wild rice’ was selected as one of the ‘Top Ten Advances in Life Sciences in China’ in 2021. Here we summarize the achievements of plant science research in China in 2021, and briefly introduce 30 representative important research advances, so as to help readers understand the developmental trend of plant sciences in China, and evaluate how to better connect plant scientific research with major national needs.

In 2020, the numbers of original research articles published by Chinese plant scientists in international multidisciplinary journals and mainstream plant science journals increased significantly compared with that in 2019, and important advances have been made in the fields of plant development, stress tolerance, crop biology, genomic phylogenetics and evolution. Among them, “Cloning, functional characterization and application in wheat breeding of the Fhb7 resistant gene to Fusarium head blight”, and “A new mechanism to improve the nitrogen-utilization efficiency in crops” were selected as two of the “Top Ten Advances in Life Sciences in China” in 2020. Here we summarize the achievements of plant science research in China in 2020, and briefly introduce 30 representative important research advances, so as to help readers understand the developmental trend of plant sciences in China, and conduct their future research to meet the national needs.

Chinese researchers in plant sciences published more original papers in international top journals and mainstream journals of plant science than last year, and made remarkable achievements in several areas. Research on the supramolecular structure and function of diatom photosynthetic membrane proteins was selected in the top 10 achievements in Chinese Sciences in 2019 and the top achievements of Chinese Life Sciences in 2019. Research on the structure and function of plant disease-resistant bodies was selected in the top 10 achievements of Chinese Life Sciences in 2019. In this review, we provide a commentary on the significant progress made by Chinese researchers in plant sciences this year.

Plant science in China continues on the track of rapid development in 2018, with many remarkable achievements and a marked increase in number of original papers published in international top journals. The achivement “regulating the plant growth-metabolism balance to achieve sustainable agricultural development” was selected in the top ten progress of Chinese science in 2018, and “the history of angiosperm flora evolution in China” in the top ten progress of Chinese life science in 2018. Studies in rice and fruit and vegetable fields has been internationally leading. In this review, we summarize the significant progress in Chinese plant science in 2018, review the latest findings and hot events, and share the great achievements made by Chinese scientists.

Plant science in China continued to maintain high-speed progress in 2017, with frequent remarkable achieve- ments and a steady increase in the number of original papers published in international top journals. Researchers in plant science in China have made brilliant achievements, such as the discovery of new broad-spectrum disease resistance mechanisms, the genetic basis and mechanism of rice broad-spectrum disease resistance, and the mechanism of Phytophthora infestation. Two achievements were included in the “Breakthrough of the year: The top 10 scientific achievements of life science in China in 2017”. Rice biology, evolution and genomics and hormone biology were highlighted. Also, academician Li Jiayang, who researches the molecular network of higher plants and metabolic pathway as well as rice design breeding, won first prize of National Natural Science in 2017 for his research "Molecular Mechanisms and Variety Design of High Yield and Quality Characters of Rice". This groundbreaking contribution with significant international impact marks the leading position of Chinese plant science in the international scientific frontier of this field. In this review, we give an overview of the significant progress made in plant science in China in 2017, review the latest findings and hot events in plant science in 2017, and share the great achievements made by Chinese scientists.

Plant science in China has been developing rapidly, with an increased number of original papers published in top international journals. Chinese scientists have made remarkable achievements in insights into important plant scientific issues, such as the structural basis for energy transfer pathways in the plant PSI-LHCI supercomplex, the perception and tolerance of rice chilling, and the molecular mechanism of ethylene signal transduction. In the “Breakthrough of the year: The top 10 scientific achievements of life science in China in 2015”, two outstanding outcomes of plant science were included. Chinese native plant scientists (including Youyou Tu and other scientists) found that artemisinin as a new drug to cure malaria, which won the Nobel Prize for natural science, marking a great achievement in plant chemistry and Chinese pharmacy. The achievement has drawn great international attention and also points to the effectiveness of the model developed by Chinese scientists—to focus on science and technology issues related to the major needs of the country. In this review, we provide a commentary on the significant progress made in plant science in China in 2015, review the latest findings and hot events in plant science in 2015, and share the great achievements made by Chinese scientists.

Plant science in China has been developing steadily in 2014 in that there is a rapid growth in the original and creative research papers. Chinese scientists have made significant contributions to insights into important plant scientific issues, such as the mechanism of strigolactone signaling transduction in rice, the regulation of rice metabolic hereditary, the genetic basis of rice male sterility, agronomy and the environmental biology. Researches on plant genomics exhibit multi-dimensional and integrative trends, spaning from function to evolution with diverse materials from model crops to cash crops. Significant progresses have been made on the responses of ecosystem carbon sink to global climate change. The achievements of plant sciences, especially in rice biology, in China have been drawn great attentions by the high impact journals including Nature. This review aims to provide an overall picture of plant science researches in China and highlights some of the important findings in 2014.