my country has a long history of using microorganisms . Shang Dynasty people use microorganisms for food fermentation and wine brewing. It was not until modern times that special institutions emerged in China to systematically collect, manage and cultivate microorganisms to serve economic production and scientific research.
Modern Chinese bacterial strain preservation originated from Huanghai Chemical Industry Research Society (referred to as "Huanghai Society"), a private academic institution with the purpose of "industry saving the country" during the Republic of China period. In 1931, Huanghai Club established a fungicine room to collect microbial strains and study the physiological morphology and applications of fungi in order to promote agricultural product research. Dr. Sun Xuewu, who was then president, has been committed to the experiment of fermentation technology and bacteria. He once said: "We are used to using cattle to plow the fields. In fact, bacteria are working for humans like cattle. Thousands of bacteria are thousands of cattle. We must develop fermentation bacteriology and enrich human life." Under his concern, the collection, isolation and application of microbacteriology have begun to reach a certain scale. In 1939, Sun Xuewu led Zhu Kezhen to visit the Huanghai Society Bacteriology Room. Zhu Kezhen praised the room: "It can be made by domestic products in everything. glass tube is also made near Jiading . The most effective one is to use mold and yeast to produce dyes, iodine-suppressing wine and other disinfectants, ink photography drugs, etc.."
The bacterial species were preserved and dispersed in the past, and there was no connection between them, and the exchange of bacterial species and exchange research was quite difficult. . Deputy Director of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. Zhu Kezhen proposed to establish an institution to unify the leadership of the national bacterial strain preservation and microbial research. After the founding of New China, the fungicide room of Huanghai Club was incorporated into the Chinese Academy of Sciences. On October 23, 1951, the fungicide collection committee of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (referred to as the "fungi protection committee") was officially established. Virologist Tang Feifan (Institute of Biological Products) served as the chairman. The daily office was set as the fermentation and fungicide research room of the former Huanghai Chemical Industry Research Society, No. 1, Fangjiayuan. The first priority for common things to create is to expand talents. In his diary, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Zhang Shuzheng, recalled his introduction process: "On the morning of January 18, 2014 (Monday), he went to the Ministry of Personnel of Heavy Industry to transfer relations, and reported to the Academy of Sciences. In the afternoon, he went to the Sperm Preservation Committee of Xijiao Park ( Beijing Zoo formerly known as ) to report, even if he was officially transferred to the Academy of Sciences." The main task of the Fungi Protection Association is to investigate the existing strain preservation status of the country, gradually collect and preserve or make some specimens, identify the types of strains, formulate exchange rules, and provide strain supply and exchange services. In less than ten years, the Jinan Insurance Association has jumped from a small unit with only 7 staff to a Beijing Microbiology Research Institute with 131 members.
In August 11957, based on the fungi protection committee, the Beijing Microbiology Research Office of the Chinese Academy of Sciences was established, with Fang Xinfang as deputy director (no director was established). In fact, Fang Xinfang was the vice president of Huanghai Club during the Republic of China. After the death of President Sun Xuewu in 1952, he was the actual person in charge of the Huanghai Club's Fermentation and Bacteria Research Office; he studied bacterial taxonomy at the Dutch Sperm Collection Center and the University of Paris , and was a rare leading talent in bacteria research in China at that time; he continued to expand the research talent team and led the laboratory to engage in the selection, classification, enzymatics and physiology in , screening and cultivating a large number of bacterial species to adapt to the development of the national economy. It is worth mentioning that during the fungi protection committee, he led Qi Zutong and Lu Donglai to conduct bacterial preservation tests. After repeated tests, he finally obtained the freeze-dried preservation method in a foreign monograph, and then made homemade equipment to test it, which was successful. More than fifty years later, freeze-drying has become a conventional method for preserving bacterial species.
On December 3, 1958, the Institute of Applied Fungus, Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Beijing Microbiology Research Office of the Chinese Academy of Sciences were merged, and Institute of Microbiology, Chinese Academy of Sciences was officially established. Today, Institute of Microbiology, Chinese Academy of Sciences also owns the China Common Microbial Sperm Preservation and Management Center (CGMCC) with a storage capacity of more than 80,000 strains and a fungus specimen with a collection of more than 550,000 specimens. It is also an international depositary of the Budapest Treaty approved by the World Intellectual Property Organization.
Author: Qin Xianhan, a doctoral student in the Department of History, School of Humanities, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences,
Source: University of Chinese Academy of Sciences,
