title: The legacy of Carl Woese and Wolfram Zillig: from phylogeny to landmark discoveries.
abstract: Two pioneers of twentieth century biology passed away during the past decade, Wolfram Zillig in April 2005 and Carl Woese in December 2012. Among several other accomplishments, Woese has been celebrated for the discovery of the domain Archaea and for establishing rRNA as the 'Rosetta Stone' of evolutionary and environmental microbiology. His work inspired many scientists in various fields of biology, and among them was Wolfram Zillig, who is credited with the discovery of several unique molecular features of archaea. In this Essay, we highlight the remarkable achievements of Woese and Zillig and consider how they have shaped the archaeal research landscape.
authors.affiliation: 1] Molecular Biology of Archaea, Max Planck Institute for Terrestrial Microbiology, Karl-von-Frisch Strasse 10, 35043 Marburg, Germany. [2].
authors.forename: Sonja-Verena
authors.initials: SV
authors.lastname: Albers
authors.forename: Patrick
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Forterre
authors.forename: David
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Prangishvili
authors.forename: Christa
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Schleper
mesh_terms: D001105:Archaea / Q000145:classification* / Q000235:genetics / Q000302:isolation & purification; D026942:DNA Topoisomerases / Q000378:metabolism; D019641:DNA, Archaeal / Q000235:genetics; D012321:DNA-Directed RNA Polymerases / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism; D004783:Environmental Microbiology; D019143:Evolution, Molecular; D049673:History, 20th Century; D049674:History, 21st Century; D010802:Phylogeny; D011487:Protein Conformation; D012335:RNA, Ribosomal / Q000235:genetics; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA
chemical_list: D019641:DNA, Archaeal; D012335:RNA, Ribosomal; D012321:DNA-Directed RNA Polymerases; D026942:DNA Topoisomerases
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