Download Few scientists can lay claim to completely revising our view of life on

[This goes in the nomination is based on box]
Few scientists can lay claim to completely revising our view of life on Earth. Recognizing that
ribosomal RNAs hold a history of life, Carl Woese inferred relationships among microorganisms,
leading to a universal tree of life that describes natural relationships. The rRNA-based tree
provides a basis for diagnosis and treatment microbial infectious disease.
[This goes in the main large box of the form]
Using methods that by today’s standards would be considered primitive, Woese devised an
approach to “fingerprint” the 16S ribosomal RNAs, critical components of a cell’s protein
translation machinery (1-5). Woese’s painstaking and penetrating analysis led him to recognize
that an assortment of unusual microbes contained a 16S rRNA pattern as similar to those of
eukaryotes as to those of typical bacteria (6,7). Woese recognized the enormous significance of
this finding, that there is a third domain of life, naming those microbes with this distinctive 16S
rRNA pattern the Archaebacteria (7), and later just Archaea (8), in order to distinguish them
from other prokaryotes. Although Woese’s conclusions were controversial for many years,
characterization of more than 20,000 rRNA genes (9-16) and recent sequencing of the entire
genomes of nearly 100 microorganisms, including 11 archaea (17,18), has substantiated Woese’s
major proposition and thus elevated Woese’s singlehanded scientific contribution to one of the
greatest discoveries in the history of biology.
In addition to its impact on the study of evolution, integrating all organisms into a
universal tree of life has transformed medical microbiology (e.g., Fredricks, D. N., and Relman,
D. A. 1998. Improved amplification of microbial DNA from blood cultures by removal of the
PCR inhibitor sodium polyanetholesulfonate. J. Clin. Microbiol. 36: 2810–2816). Knowledge
of natural relationships among living things has greatly expanded our understanding of pathogens
(9-16), and enabled more informed approaches to treatment. In combination with modern
molecular methods, rRNAs now provide the bases for rapid, sensitive and specific identification
of pathogenic microorganisms. With a database of rRNA sequences and a phylogenetic
framework of previously described organisms (19), molecular methods are being used to detect
and phylogenetically characterize new microorganisms in clinical contexts.
In summary, Carl Woese’s magnificent discoveries have benefited humankind in
significant ways by revealing a previously unknown realm of life and by giving a generation of
medical scientists powerful new tools with which to diagnose and combat infectious disease.