The geothermal features in Yellowstone are amongst my top 10 favorite sites on this planet. Here’s a bit of #microbio history on the PCR test I’d like to share.
Pictured: Grand Prismatic at the Midway Geyser Basin @YellowstoneNPS
“Until the 1980s, our ability to study DNA was limited. Things we take for granted today such as DNA fingerprinting to identify criminals, DNA medical diagnoses, DNA-based studies of nature, and genetic engineering did not exist.”
“But in 1985, the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) was invented. PCR is an artificial way to do something that living things do every day—replicate DNA. PCR is the rocket ship of replication, because it allows scientists to make billions of copies of a piece of DNA in a few hours.
“Without PCR, scientists could not make enough copies of DNA quickly enough to perform their analyses. However, the heat necessary to do the PCR process inactivated the enzymes making the process extremely slow and expensive.”
“They found the solution to this problem in one of the hot spring organisms isolated from Yellowstone by park researcher Thomas Brock in the 1960s; Thermus aquaticus. An enzyme discovered in T. aquaticus—called Taq polymerase—made PCR practical.”
Because it came from an extremophile @YellowstoneNPS Taq polymerase can withstand the heat of the PCR process without breaking down like ordinary polymerase enzymes. In 1989 Taq polymerase was named Science magazine's first-ever "Molecule of the Year." nps.gov/yell/learn/nat…
The roots of the PCR via @ASMicrobiology 1969:
Thermus aquaticus gen. n. and sp. n., a Nonsporulating Extreme Thermophile. jb.asm.org/content/98/1/2…
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