The State Key Laboratory of Agricultural Microbiology (the Laboratory), affiliated to HZAU, was founded on the basis of microbiology, a national key discipline initiated by Professor Huakui Chen, a member of Chinese Academy of Science and the founding father of soil microbiology in China. The Laboratory is integrated by three strong disciplines of HZAU, namely molecular biology (a national key discipline), preventive veterinary medicine (a provincial key discipline) and fermentation engineering (two provincial key disciplines). The Laboratory:

l earned authorization for construction from Ministry of Agriculture of China in 1990

l passed expert assessment and earned the title “Key Laboratory of Agricultural Microbiology of Ministry of Agriculture” in 1992

l passed appraisal and was awarded “Outstanding Key Laboratory of Ministry of Agriculture of China” in 1996, 1999, and 2002

l was renamed “Key Laboratory of Agricultural Microbiology of Ministry of Education” in 2002

l was upgraded to be “State Key Laboratory of Agricultural Microbiology” with authorization from National Ministry of Science and Technology in Dec. 2003 and passed its inspection in Oct. 2006

l passed five consecutive assessments administered by the Ministry of Science and Technology (in 1996, 2001, 2006, 2011, and 2017) and ranked “A” for five times among state key laboratories and some key laboratories of outstanding departments in the field of life science