(1) Microbial photosynthesis and biological nitrogen fixation

● Conducting in-depth study on the structure and function of cyanobacteria light-trapping and energy-transferring complexes to reveal the law of efficient light-trapping and energy-transferring in the photosynthetic system, create photosynthetic elements in the all-visible band, and strengthen photosynthetic light-trapping and energy-transferring, which can provide new theories, technologies and systems for the substantial improvement in crop productivity; 

● Taking the rhizobia symbiotic nitrogen fixation system as research subjects to study the invasion of host plants by rhizobia, the intracellular colonization of plants and the mechanism of bacteroid differentiation, and to reveal how legumes respond to rhizobia symbiotic signals and how nitrogen fixation nodules develop; 

● Utilizing key symbiotic genes of legumes to construct a symbiotic gene circuit with rhizobium in rice, which can lay theoretical and practical foundations for non-legumes symbiotic nitrogen fixation system 

(2) Crop pesticidal microbiology

Taking Bacillus thuringiensis, Streptomyces, and mycoviruses as major research subjects to prevent damages by diseases and pests and achieve sustainable agricultural development and strive to overcome theoretical and practical barriers in pest and disease control: exploring new microbial resources and genes, revealing biological and ecological systems, developing new insecticidal and disease-resistant microbial pesticides, and providing relevant field solutions and services 

(3) Animal pathogenic microorganism

Taking some zoonosis pathogens such as animal influenza virus, rabies virus, Swine streptococosis, Mycobacterium tuberculosis and some important animal pathogen microbes such as porcine blue-ear disease virus, porcine actinobacillus pleuropneumoniae, haemophilus parasuis as research subjects to study pathogen ecology and epidemiology, pathogen genomics and proteomics, and molecular pathogenesis and immune mechanism, and to develop genetic engineering vaccine and diagnostic reagents, which can promote sustainable development of the breeding industry and secure food safety and human health

(4) Agricultural environment microbe

To solve environmental problems such as heavy metal soil pollution and agricultural non-point source pollution, transformation of agricultural waste and eutrophication of water, relevant researches are conducted to reveal the interaction mechanisms between microorganisms, pollutants, and the environment, explore the microbial flora and evolution characteristics of healthy soil, cultivate efficient microbial resources that can passivate heavy metals and degrade organic pollutant, develop high-efficient, low-cost and environmental-friendly soil pollution remediation agents and water eutrophication purification agents, demonstrate the remediation of polluted soil and water and promote its application, and formulate technical standards and evaluation criteria, providing theoretical and technical support for the improvement of soil and water quality.