Chen Wenxin (23 September 1926 – 7 October 2021) was a Chinese biologist specializing in

soil microorganisms Soil microbiology is the study of microorganisms in soil, their functions, and how they affect soil properties. It is believed that between two and four billion years ago, the first ancient bacteria and microorganisms came about on Earth's oceans. ...

and

bacterial taxonomy Bacterial taxonomy is the taxonomy, i.e. the rank-based classification, of bacteria. In the scientific classification established by Carl Linnaeus, each species has to be assigned to a genus ( binary nomenclature), which in turn is a lower level ...

, and an academician of the

Chinese Academy of Sciences The Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS); ), known by Academia Sinica in English until the 1980s, is the national academy of the People's Republic of China for natural sciences. It has historical origins in the Academia Sinica during the Repub ...

. Some English-language sources cite her as "Wen Xin Chen" or as "Wen-Xin Chen".

Biography

Chen was born in the town of Zhentou, Liuyang County,

Hunan Hunan (, ; ) is a landlocked province of the People's Republic of China, part of the South Central China region. Located in the middle reaches of the Yangtze watershed, it borders the province-level divisions of Hubei to the north, Jiangxi ...

, on 23 September 1926, to , a classmate of

Mao Zedong Mao Zedong pronounced ; also Romanization of Chinese, romanised traditionally as Mao Tse-tung. (26 December 1893 – 9 September 1976), also known as Chairman Mao, was a Chinese communist revolutionary who was the List of national founde ...

Hunan First Normal University Hunan First Normal University (), founded in 1903, is a university located in Yuelu District, Changsha, Hunan Province, China. Hunan First Normal University covers a total area of 1346 mu, with more than 420,000 square meters of floor space. Th ...

and revolutionary of the

Chinese Communist Party The Chinese Communist Party (CCP), officially the Communist Party of China (CPC), is the founding and sole ruling party of the People's Republic of China (PRC). Under the leadership of Mao Zedong, the CCP emerged victorious in the Chinese Ci ...

, and Mao Bingqin (). Her father was killed by

Kuomintang The Kuomintang (KMT), also referred to as the Guomindang (GMD), the Nationalist Party of China (NPC) or the Chinese Nationalist Party (CNP), is a major political party in the Republic of China, initially on the Chinese mainland and in Tai ...

Changsha Changsha (; ; ; Changshanese pronunciation: (), Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ) is the capital and the largest city of Hunan Province of China. Changsha is the 17th most populous city in China with a population of over 10 million, and th ...

in February 1930 when she was only three. She had two elder sisters. In 1942, she attended National No. 11 High School (now Yueyang No. 1 High School) in

Yueyang Yueyang, formerly known as Yuezhou or Yochow, is a prefecture-level city on the eastern shores of Dongting Lake and Yangtze in the northeastern corner of Hunan Province in the People's Republic of China. Yueyang has an administrative area of an ...

. After graduating in 1945, she returned to her hometown to teach primary school for two years. In 1948, she enrolled at the Department of Agricultural Chemistry, National Wuhan University (now

Wuhan University Wuhan University (WHU; ) is a public research university in Wuhan, Hubei. The university is sponsored by the Ministry of Education. Wuhan university was founded as one of the four elite universities in the early republican period of China and i ...

), where she graduated in 1952. In 1954, she was sent to study at the

Russian State Agrarian University – Moscow Timiryazev Agricultural Academy Moscow Timiryazev Agricultural Academy (full name in russian: Российский государственный аграрный университет — МСХА имени К.А. Тимирязева) is one of the oldest agrarian educatio ...

on government scholarships, earning her vice-doctorate degree under the supervision of soviet microbiologist in 1958. Her thesis topic was "Comparative Study on the Physiological Characteristics of Nitrogen-fixing Bacteria with and Without Spores." Chen returned to China in 1959 and taught at Beijing Agricultural University (now

China Agricultural University China Agricultural University (CAU, ; abbreviated as 农大) is a public research university in Beijing, People's Republic of China specializing in agriculture, biology, engineering, veterinary medicine, economics, management, humanities and soc ...

). From 1982 to 1983, she was a visiting scholar at

Cornell University Cornell University is a private statutory land-grant research university based in Ithaca, New York. It is a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1865 by Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White, Cornell was founded with the intention to ...

. She was elected to the

in 2001. On 7 October 2021, she died from an illness in

Beijing } Beijing ( ; ; ), alternatively romanized as Peking ( ), is the capital of the People's Republic of China. It is the center of power and development of the country. Beijing is the world's most populous national capital city, with over 21 ...

, aged 95.

Contributions

Chen established the first modern bacterial molecular classification laboratory in China. She put forward new ideas to deny the traditional concepts of "host specificity" of rhizobia and "interracial race" with plants. She founded the world's largest

rhizobium ''Rhizobium'' is a genus of Gram-negative soil bacteria that fix nitrogen. ''Rhizobium'' species form an endosymbiotic nitrogen-fixing association with roots of (primarily) legumes and other flowering plants. The bacteria colonize plant cells ...

resource database in China, whose number of strains and host plant species ranked first in the world. She established a set of scientific Rhizobium classification, identification technical methods and data processing procedures. She proved the diversity of symbiotic relationship between rhizobia and

legume A legume () is a plant in the family Fabaceae (or Leguminosae), or the fruit or seed of such a plant. When used as a dry grain, the seed is also called a pulse. Legumes are grown agriculturally, primarily for human consumption, for livestock fo ...

s, and revealed the great difference in symbiotic effectiveness between near source strains and different varieties of plants, she also put forward new ideas on the evolution of symbiotic mechanism of rhizobia, and found that mixed planting between gramineous plants and legumes can eliminate the obstacle of "nitrogen repression" of rhizobia, and the two interact to produce high yield.

Honours and awards

* 2001 State Natural Science Award (Second Class) for diversity, taxonomy and phylogeny of legume rhizobia resources in China * 2001 Member of the

The genus

Wenxinia ''Wenxinia'' is a genus of bacteria from the family of Rhodobacteraceae. It is named for biologist Chen Wenxin Chen Wenxin (23 September 1926 – 7 October 2021) was a Chinese biologist specializing in soil microorganisms and bacterial taxo ...

was named in her honour.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Chen, Wenxin 1926 births 2021 deaths 20th-century Chinese scientists Academic staff of China Agricultural University Chinese women biologists Disease-related deaths in the People's Republic of China Members of the Chinese Academy of Engineering People from Liuyang Scientists from Hunan National Wuhan University alumni