An Interactive Annotated World Bibliography of Printed and Digital Works in the History of Medicine and the Life Sciences from Circa 2000 BCE to 2022 by Fielding H. Garrison (1870-1935), Leslie T. Morton (1907-2004), and Jeremy M. Norman (1945- ) Traditionally Known as “Garrison-Morton”

15961 entries, 13944 authors and 1935 subjects. Updated: March 22, 2024

TRELA, John M.

1 entries
  • 11104

Deoxyribonucleic acid polymerase from the extreme thermophile Thermus aquaticus.

J. Bact., 127, 1550-1557, 1976.

The authors showed that the heat resistant bacteria Thermus aquaticus discovered by Thomas Brock contained a vital polymerase enzyme that had
evolved in this bacteria to allow it to metabolize and survive in exceptionally high temperatures.

Roughly 10 years after this discovery its implications for molecular biology and biotechnology were recognized. According to Paul Rabinow, Making PCR (1996) “By June 1986 the Taq [Thermus aquaticus] Polymerase had been purified” in Kerry Mullis's lab and became a key element in the polymerase chain reaction.

(Thanks to Juan Weiss for this entry and its interpretation.)



Subjects: BACTERIOLOGY › BACTERIA (mostly pathogenic; sometimes indexed only to genus) › Gram-Negative or Gram-Positive Bacteria › Thermus, BIOLOGY › MOLECULAR BIOLOGY › Polymerase Chain Reaction, WOMEN, Publications by › Years 1900 - 1999