“艺术的外貌、科学的内涵、使命的担当”——植物园500年来的科研与社会功能变迁(二):科学的内涵

“Science, art and responsibility”: The scientific and social function changes of a 500-year history of botanical gardens. Ⅱ. Intension of sciences

世界植物园500多年来的科研行进轨迹既是整个生物学发展史的一个缩影,也表现出人类对植物资源发掘与利用,使之服务于经济与社会发展的不懈追求。从16–17世纪的植物园主要研究药用植物并发掘药物,到18–20世纪以来从植物分类学逐步拓展至众多植物学分支学科,进一步发展到当今的植物分子生物学及基因组、代谢组学等等。植物园在长达几个世纪的发展进程中,其科学研究内涵始终贯穿其中,既奠定了18世纪植物分类学的根基,也对18世纪以来许多生物学发现及其理论体系的建立作出了不可磨灭的贡献。同时,16世纪以来跨大陆、跨地区、跨国家之间的植物引种驯化及其发掘利用与传播深刻改变了世界经济社会格局,影响了一些国家的兴衰。在近代500多年的植物引种驯化与传播过程中,植物园发挥了引领作用。本文试图对植物园500年来的科学研究轨迹进行梳理,展望当今植物园在植物宏观与微观生物学及其大数据时代相关研究领域的发展趋势,为我国植物园的科研方向提供可借鉴的参考。

The advance trajectory of scientific research in the world botanical gardens over past 500 years is not only a microcosm of the whole history of biological sciences, but also reveal the unremitting pursuit of mankind exploration and utilization of plant resources for development of economy and society. From the 16 th–17 th centuries, botanical garden＇s main studies on medicinal plants and drug discovery, to the 18 th–20 th centuries＇ founding plant taxonomy and then branching to various botanical disciplines, to nowadays＇ plant molecular biology and genomics, metabolomics and so on, scientific research connotation of botanical gardens have been mainstream process during these centuries when not only laid the foundation of plant taxonomy in the 18 th century, but also made indelible contributions to many biological discoveries and establishment of theoretical system since the 18 th century. Meanwhile, since the 16 th century, the introduction and domestication of crop plants across continents, regions and countries have profoundly changed the world economic and social structure and affected the rise and fall of many countries. The botanical gardens have played a pilot and leading role for introduction and spread of crop plants over the past 500 years. This paper attempts to review historical track of intension of sciences of botanical gardens in recent 500 years for revealing future trend of the research fields relating to plant macro and micro biology and era of big data in today＇s botanical gardens in order to provide reference of valuable thinking for scientific research in botanical gardens of China.