Escherichia coli is an important micro-organism for the Nobel

The Nobel Prize is science’s highest honor.

Each year there are only a few Nobel prizes awarded. These go to scientists whose discoveries “have conferred the greatest benefit on mankind”.

We are here reporting a list of Nobel discoveries in which E. coli contributed to receive the prize.

1958 – Bacterial sex and other ways bacteria can share genes with one another

1959 – DNA replication, how life copies its genetic code

1965 – Gene regulation, how genes are turned on or off

1968 – The genetic code, the language in which our DNA is written

1969 – Virus replication, how viruses reproduce inside cells

1978 – Restriction enzymes, cellular “scissors” that allow scientists to cut DNA

1980 – Recombinant DNA, the creation of the first genetically engineered DNA

1989 – RNA as an enzyme, additional roles for RNA discovered

1997 – ATP generation, how cells make ATP, the energy molecule that powers life

1999 – Signal sequences on proteins, one way that cells organize themselves

2008 – Green fluorescent protein, a tag scientists use to track cell components

Font: The American Academy of Microbiology.