Building a global microbial science "Babel Tower"

■ Reporter Feng Lifei

Someone once described it this way: "Mastering a biological vault is equivalent to mastering a large number of factories." "Today's Institute of Microbiology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (hereinafter referred to as the Institute of Microbiology) undoubtedly has such a world-class treasure trove.

The reporter recently learned from the Institute of Microbiology that the global microbial resource data sharing platform led by the National Microbial Science Data Center of the Institute has gathered 520,000 microbial physical resource data from 141 partners in 51 countries. "This shows that as the world's largest comprehensive microbiology research institution, the Institute of Microbiology is taking on more responsibilities in international cooperation." Qian Wei, director of the Institute of Microbiology, said in an interview with China Science News.

"The shared platform enables Chinese scientists to organize and coordinate the relevant forces of various countries with a global vision and establish a global cooperation framework." At the same time, it also promotes China to gradually occupy the forefront and leading position of international microbial research in the development and application of microbial resources and data sharing. Ma Juncai, head of the global microbial resource data sharing platform and director of the National Microbial Science Data Center, said.

Aggregate resources Interconnect

As a research institution with a 60-year-old age, the Institute of Microbiology has a lot of "family foundations", one of which is the "microbial bank" that has been passed down for generations - the China Ordinary Microbial Strain Preservation and Management Center.

"This is the first preservation center in China to be certified by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) and one of the largest microbial resource banks in the world." Qian Wei introduced that the total amount of physical strains and resources preserved by the center exceeds 80,000 strains, which has become a treasure house of important scientific research and microbial resources in China.

There is a plane tree at home, which attracts the phoenix. In 2010, after fierce global competition, the World Microbial Data Center settled in the Institute of Microbiology. In the past 11 years, a total of 812 microbial resource preservation centers in 77 countries around the world have registered in the center, which has become an important platform for China to "inventory" global microorganisms and their genetic resources.

The National Microbial Science Data Center is one of the first 20 national scientific data centers to be launched in 2019, and the Institute of Microbiology is the lead unit, which further improves a series of important databases related to China's microbial resources.

As a professional "player" in the field of big data research, At that time, Ma Juncai shouldered two positions as the head of the world and the national microbial science data center. But he is even more determined to address the long-standing problem of fragmented data from various countries and inability of users to search for one stops at a time on the global microbial resource data platform.

As a result, the National Microbial Science Data Center and the World Microbial Data Center took the lead in establishing the International Cooperation Program for the Global Microbial Strain Preservation Catalogue, built a global microbial resource data sharing platform, and brought together 520,000 microbial physical resource data from 141 partners in 51 countries, forming a global interconnected microbial data information cooperation network.

In Qian Wei's view, this platform is like a "babel tower", through which China can organize and coordinate the research forces of various countries, establish a global cooperation framework, and play a leading and leading role in the integration of microbial resources and data sharing.

Setting standards leads the world

At the recent Wuzhen Summit of the 2021 World Internet Conference, the global microbial resource data sharing platform was selected as one of the first 12 global "Boutique Cases of Jointly Building a Community of Shared Destiny in Cyberspace". "That's a big encouragement to us." Ma Juncai believes that the essence of the so-called "community of shared future in cyberspace" is to enable all participants to benefit from it through international cooperation.

According to reports, the sharing platform is free and open, and all microbial data is shared with the whole world. "It is equivalent to the microbials of different countries in the world 'exhibiting' on a unified platform." Ma Juncai said that it can make the microbial preservation centers and resources of developing countries better receive global attention and raise awareness; for developed countries, it can provide the contribution of microbial resources highlighted in their evaluation systems to the world.

Ma Juncai explained the global use of strains by the German Microbial Culture Preservation Center, the largest preservation center in Europe, as an example, that the data platform can clearly show how many articles have been published by users around the world with the center's strains since 1987, so as to understand the influence of the center in the world.

"Such systematic review reports are now produced by us, and our database is authoritative and complete." Ma Juncai said, "Just like the ID card, all microbial resources that enter the global microbial resources preservation center registration database system have unique numbers and identifiers. ”

In order to create a high-quality international data platform, the National Microbial Science Data Center, together with experts in related fields in more than 10 countries, jointly formulated the first ISO microbial resource data standard in the field of international microbial resources, eliminating the long-term sharing obstacles caused by the different forms of data management in microbial resource centers in various countries.

Not only that, the National Microbial Science Data Center has also launched the global 10,000 microbial model strain sequencing program, and 25 microbial preservation institutions in 16 countries have participated in this international cooperation program and provided DNA or strain resources, which makes the global data resource sharing truly develop into a cooperation of international microbial physical resources.

At present, scientists around the world have published 17,800 species of model bacteria, of which only 8,000 have been sequenced, and completing the sequencing of the remaining pattern bacteria is the goal of the research team. Ma Juncai revealed that at present, this leading project has completed the sequencing of more than 4,000 models of microorganisms.

The combination of virtual and real creates a highland

"We have both the world and the national database, and these two systems are a great advantage for us in the research of microbial resources and foreign cooperation and exchange." Qian Wei said.

Talking about the future expectations of the data center, Qian Wei hopes that it can make breakthroughs in the core algorithms of data science and solve the related "card neck" problem; promote the linkage between virtual data and physical preservation, create an "Internet of Things" in the field of microorganisms, and use data to drive the development of knowledge systems and physical resource systems; and cultivate world-class scientists in microbial data.

"It is with the strong support of the Chinese government, the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Institute of Microbiology that the data center has today's appearance." Ma Juncai said that thanks to this support, the center will hold international seminars and training courses every year, and even go abroad, extending relevant conferences and training abroad, and playing a very good role in expanding international cooperation.

Ma Juncai said that in the next step, the global microbial resource data sharing platform will further attract international partners to join this cooperation network, build the largest and most authoritative microbial identification platform in the world, further carry out data mining applications, help pathogenic microbial prevention and control decisions, and use microorganisms to support industrial development. They will also continue to advance the 10,000 microbial pattern strain sequencing program to refine and reconstruct the phylogenetic tree of life and establish a "gold standard" for microbial classification based on omics data.

Source: China Science Daily