摘要
The work of Carl Woese and his colleagues of the Urbana University has been one of the most important breakthroughs in biology in the last century(for historical sketches,see Refs.1,2).Carl Woese pioneered the use of macromolecule sequences to decipher the relationships between all organisms,fulfilling Darwin's dream to get a“fairly true genealogical trees of each great kingdom of nature”3.He went even beyond this objective since he was finally able to identify and connect each great kingdom of nature(which he called domains)into a single tree.The apex of his work was the discovery in 1977 of an entire new domain of life,hidden before our eyes,the Archaea4.The use of 16S ribosomal RNA(rRNA)as a molecular chronometer and later as a probe for PCR not only revealed a third domain of life but also paved the way for the detection and identification of microorganisms that were not yet amenable to cultivation5.
出处
《mLife》
2022年第4期359-367,共9页
微生物（英文）
