Peisong Tang, Chinese plant physiologist (Xishui, Hubei Province 12 November 1903 – 06 September 2001)
ACHIEVEMENTS
Authored about 200 scientific papers
First Chinese biologist who published in famous magazines Nature and Science
Proved the existence of cytochrome oxidase in plants (1932)
First experimentally proved the existence of carbonic anhydrase in plants
First to prove the existence of inducible enzymes in plants
With H.Y. Wu. Adaptive formation of nitrate reductase in rice seedlings. Nature 179:1355-6, 1957
Proposed that there exist various interconnected respiratory metabolic pathways and electron transfers at the same plant or proposed the concept of multiple pathways in respiratory metabolism
Firstly put forward the concept of control of respiration by enzyme reactions and respiratory control of physiological activities in living and intact tissues (1950s)
With Zhu Xi Wang (J.S. Wang) enunciated the theory of cellular water potential and applied the term water potential to cellular water relations
With J. S. Wang. A thermodynamic formulation of the water relations in an isolated living cell. J. Phys. Chem. 45:443-53, 1941
Developed a respirometer vessel for study of metabolism of seeds (1932)
Papers in Nature & Science
With S.L. Chen, B.L. Cheng & W.K. Cheng. An atibiotic substance in the Chinese water chestnut Eleocharis tuberosa. Nature 156:234, 1945
With W.S. Loo. Polyploidy in soybean, pea, wheat and rice, induced by colchicine treatment. Science 91(2357):222, 1940
Eponym of Tang’s equation