Source: Economic Daily
Zhuang Wenying in the laboratory. Wenying Zhuang studies isolates of samples collected in the wild. Economic Daily reporter She Huimin photographed
Fungi appear in all corners of the globe, and they are very diverse and morphological. Zhuang Wenying, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and a researcher at the Institute of Microbiology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, has been interested in fungi for nearly half a century, crawling through the barren mountains and mountains of 26 provinces; her shoulders, carrying countless fungal specimens; and her pair of eyes, identifying more than 360 new species. In the vast field of mycology, Zhuang Wenying has made unswerving and lifelong research and made world-renowned contributions.
Today, Zhuang Wenying, who is over seventy years old, has inconvenient legs and feet and no longer participates in field expeditions. But when it comes to fungi, she still has her eyebrows fluttering: "We still have to fight to explore the 94% of the unknown fungal species." ”
Focus on one thing for a lifetime
Zhuang Wenying, who was born in Beijing in 1948, is now in her seventies. In this life, she focused on only one career: mycological research.
Fungi are eukaryotic microorganisms with cell walls, chlorophyll-free, and most multiply as spores. The yeast used for saccharomyces is a small fungus, and the mushrooms that can be eaten by humans are macromycomas. China is one of the earliest countries to use fungi, Li Shizhen recorded 34 fungal drugs in the "Compendium of Materia Medica".
"Life from prokaryotes to eukaryotes is an essential leap. Fungi are relatively primitive eukaryotes, and scientists use fungi as materials to explore the laws of life evolution. Zhuang Wenying is a rigorous scholar, usually speaking without bothering, with the style of "deeds are better than words", but when it comes to fungi, it is gushing endlessly.
Fungi are a treasure trove of scientific research. Yeast was the first eukaryotes to sequence genomes, thus accelerating the development of genomics. Fungi can also be used for biological control, to achieve "fungus to cure insects" and "bacteria to treat bacteria", to create a good human living environment to contribute. The world's first antibiotic, penicillin, was produced by fungi, and its discovery and application increased the average human life expectancy from 40 to 60 years...
Wenying Zhuang's interest in fungi has lasted for more than 40 years.
In 1968, Zhuang Wenying responded to the call of the state to join the team in rural Shanxi. In 1973, she entered Shanxi Agricultural College (now Shanxi Agricultural University). When you graduate, you can choose between two majors – entomology or plant pathology. She chose plant pathology. "70% of plant diseases are caused by fungi, when there was more exposure, and there was a gradual interest in fungi and laying some foundations." Zhuang Wenying said.
In 1978, she was admitted as a graduate student at the Institute of Microbiology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences under the supervision of professor Yu Yongnian, a famous mycologist. At that time, the best scientific research unit for fungus research in the country was the Institute of Microbiology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and Professor Yu Yongnian was a student of Academician Dai Fanglan, one of the founders of Chinese mycology. The love and spirit of exploration of mycology are in this vein, so that Zhuang Wenying, who was established at the age of establishment, established his own scientific research ambitions.
"In the vast world of life, in the long river of biological evolution, fungi play a very important role and will certainly affect the future of mankind. But human understanding of fungi is far from enough. I am willing to put my life into understanding fungi. Zhuang Wenying said.
There are conservative estimates of between 2.2 million and 3.8 million fungi worldwide, and only about 150,000 have been discovered and described. Humans are only aware of 6% of fungal species, with 94% remaining to be discovered.
That said, there are at least 2 million more fungi to study, a job that generations can't do. In the face of such a difficult task, some people retreat from difficulties, and some people face difficulties. Zhuang Wenying is the latter.
"If a person takes scientific research as his life's work, he must be very devoted and pay attention to the latest progress of the discipline on the basis of what he has." Zhuang Wenying has focused on fungal research for 46 years in the spirit of Yugong Moving Mountain, and published 1 new family of fungi, 13 new genera, and more than 360 new species.
On the basis of resource collection, Zhuang Wenying's team strives to carry out the evaluation of fungal availability to provide a scientific basis for resource utilization. "Although I am engaged in basic work, I publish our findings, and other scholars can carry out applied and theoretical research on the basis of our foundation." Zhuang Wenying said.
Climb the mountain without fear of difficulties
In 1983, Wenying Zhuang, an assistant researcher who had been working at the institute, went to Cornell University in the United States as a visiting scholar to study, and began to pursue a doctorate in 1985. There, she was thirsty for knowledge, racing against the clock, compressing her rest time to a very demanding point, quickly mastering the latest research methods in mycology, and publishing many papers.
"The scientific research conditions there are good, the literature is rich, which has improved the speed of scientific research output, and the high efficiency of scholars there has also affected me, and I hope that China will also have such an output speed." Recalling the struggling career of that young age, Zhuang Wenying is still full of pride in participating in the world's cutting-edge scientific competition.
At the beginning of 1988, after Zhuang Wenying received a doctorate degree from Cornell University, she did not linger on the relatively advanced scientific research conditions abroad, but returned to work at the Institute of Microbiology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.
At that time, domestic scholars rarely published SCI papers. SCI is the English abbreviation of the "Science Citation Index" in the United States, which includes a large number of international academic journals, and the papers published in these journals are collectively referred to as SCI papers. "I sent some SCI papers when I was abroad, and when I returned home, I wanted my domestic counterparts to know that SCI is not unattainable." Zhuang Wenying said.
In 1994, Zhuang Wenying's team received special support project funding from the Department of Biota of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and with the support of only 30,000 yuan, she organized team members to investigate the fungal resources of Dabashan, and together they published 7 SCI articles and made a booklet "Fungi of Dabashan". This is a wonderful collective appearance for Chinese fungal scholars on the international stage. Encouraged by this, many domestic fungal scholars have published articles in international journals.
During the reporter's interview, although Zhuang Wenying no longer participated in the field expedition, she still danced with her eyebrows when talking about the past of climbing mountains and mountains.
In the 1980s and 1990s, the conditions for scientific expeditions were rudimentary, the luggage and equipment were carried by themselves, and there was no special car, and various means of transportation had to be reversed to reach the destination of the specimen collection. In Dalongshan, Guangxi, she took a simple tin boat through the reservoir, reached the primeval jungle, and found many new species of disc-shaped fungi that she had never seen before; in Xinjiang, she took a car deep into the Gobi Desert, bumping all the way, and was delighted by the magnificent scenery of the "desert and smoke in the vast world"...
She has traveled to 26 provinces and collected a large number of specimens; she has studied a large number of fungal materials in 39 countries and regions, clarifying a large number of classification and naming problems; she has independently completed the world monograph study of 3 genera and doubled the number of species in some taxa in China; she has discovered and screened out strains of Trichoderma fungi with deep application potential...
Charging at the international forefront of mycological research has allowed Zhuang Wenying to gain the respect of her peers at home and abroad.
Scholars named two new genera after her: a new genus of fungi, Wenyingia, and a new genus of bacteria, Wenyingzhuangia.
The Dictionary of the Fungi is an authoritative tool in the field of international mycology, and all the participants have been outstanding contributors in the field, and Zhuang Wenying was invited to participate in the preparation of the ninth edition, becoming the first Chinese scholar to participate in the compilation of the dictionary since its publication in 1943.
She has been elected to the Executive Committee of the International Mycological Society three times, the first Chinese executive committee member since the establishment of the organization, and the first Chinese elected scholar to be a Foreign Honorary Fellow of the American Mycological Society.
She has presided over more than 20 major, key, surface and special projects of the Ministry of Science and Technology of China, such as "Compilation and Research of Chinese Sporobotany", and published more than 280 papers, including 178 SCI source journals, and written 9 edited books and participated in 9 edits.
Recently, the Propaganda Department of the Beijing Municipal Party Committee, the Beijing Municipal Association for Science and Technology and other departments jointly carried out the learning and publicity activities of the most beautiful scientific and technological workers in Beijing for the first time, and Zhuang Wenying was selected as the "Most Beautiful Scientific and Technological Workers" in Beijing in 2021.
Learning the sea is endlessly waiting for future generations
In 2009, at the age of 61, Zhuang Wenying was elected an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. At that time, her mentor, Mr. Yu Yongnian, was still alive. Zhuang Wenying came to the tutor's house to announce the good news, and the teacher and the teacher's mother, who was over eighty years old, took Zhuang Wenying's hand and jumped up happily.
"My teacher had a long-term vision, and in the 1980s, when he needed an assistant, he sent me abroad to study, very selflessly. My teachers have a spirit of learning that has always influenced me. Zhuang Wenying said.
Fungi are vast and have an end, and research in the field of fungi has been continuously promoted in the cooperative relay of generations of scholars.
The purpose of the compilation and research of "Chinese Mycology" is to find out the family background of China's fungal species resources, which is an important work that condenses the painstaking efforts of generations of mycologists in China, and is the crystallization of the collective labor of more than 200 scholars.
As early as 1973, China established the Editorial Committee of the Chinese Academy of Sciences of Chinese Spore Flora to carry out preliminary organizational work, and "Mycology of China" was one of its five sub-chronicles, and the first volume was published in 1987. "In the early years, China's fungal resources research funds were small, and field surveys were insufficient, but now the state has strengthened funding for investigation work, and the conditions for field work are much better." Zhuang Wenying, the current editor-in-chief of "Chinese Mycology", introduced that there are currently more than 21,000 known strains in China, an increase of 3 times in 40 years. In the 62 volumes of the published "Mycology of China", it contains 8873 species of fungi in 905 genera.
In Zhuang Wenying's view, the process of compiling and researching "Mycology of China" is not only the process of discovering new species from nature, but also the process of developing and utilizing biological resources and building a talent echelon. "The next step is still daunting. At present, many fungal taxa are still unattended and urgently need to be studied in depth. Zhuang Wenying said.
For young people in the field of mycology, Zhuang Wenying has high hopes, both strict requirements and full respect.
She guides students in experimental operations hand in hand and personally cleans the experimental table; she guides students' papers, carefully worded and meticulous; she encourages students' spirit of exploration and innovation, respects students' independent work ability, and supports students to adjust the research content of papers according to the actual situation.
"I hope that young people must first love science and have enough love to give full play to their talents; secondly, they must seek truth from facts, they must do their studies seriously, they can withstand loneliness, and they also need to have the courage to fight, devote themselves wholeheartedly, and master reasonable research methods; in addition, I support young people to go abroad to have a look, but in the end they must be based on their own country and stand on their own feet." Zhuang Wenying said.
What is Zhuang Wenying's expectation for the future development of mycology?
"We're also going to work hard to explore the 94 percent of the unknown fungal species." Zhuang Wenying said that it is necessary to continue to explore the fungal resources in nature, and constantly understand, develop and utilize fungi to make fungi better benefit human beings. (Economic Daily reporter She Huimin)