E. coli: Only Bacteria that win records number of Nobel Prizes

Escherichia coli is the best known prokaryotic organism, we know more about E. coli than humans. It was first isolated in 1885 by the German bacteriologist Theodor Escherich, as normal flora of the intestinal tract.

The Nobel Prize is the highest honor for a scientist. Each year, only a few scientists are awarded this glorious award. Only a few scientists whose discoveries “have conferred the greatest benefit on mankind” will be remembered as Nobel Laureate.

Logo of Nobel Prize with computer generated image of *E. coli*

E. coli is the preferred model organism for different experiments as it is easy to grow and work within the laboratory. It also supports the growth of various bacterial viruses (bacteriophages) which made it possible to study the detailed structure and pathogenesis of viruses. The process of conjugation was discovered in E. coli in 1946 by Joshua Lederberg and Edward L. Tatum. The availability of DNA sequence information coupled with vast biochemical and physiological data makes E. coli the organism of choice not only for virologists, biochemists, and molecular biologists but for all researchers of biology.

Below is a list of the Nobel-worthy discoveries in which E. coli has been used as a research organism/tool along with Nobel prize-winning year.

2015: The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2015 was awarded jointly to Tomas Lindahl, Paul Modrich, and Aziz Sancar “for mechanistic studies of DNA repair”. Escherichia coli was extensively used in this research.
2008: Green fluorescent protein, a tag scientists use to track cell components
1999: Signal sequences on proteins, one way that cells organize themselves
1997: ATP generation, how cells make ATP, the energy molecule that powers life
1989: RNA as an enzyme, additional roles for RNA discovered
1980: Recombinant DNA, the creation of the first genetically engineered DNA
1978: Restriction enzymes, cellular “scissors” that allows scientists to cut DNA
1969: Virus replication, how viruses reproduce inside cells
1968: The genetic code, the language in which our DNA is written
1965: Gene regulation, how genes are turned on or off
1959: DNA replication, how life copies its genetic code
1958: Bacterial sex, and other ways bacteria can share genes with one another

References and further readings

FAQ: E. Coli: Good, Bad, & Deadly—NCBI Bookshelf. Retrieved June 7, 2021, from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK562895/

Acharya Tankeshwar

Hello, thank you for visiting my blog. I am Tankeshwar Acharya. Blogging is my passion. As an asst. professor, I am teaching microbiology and immunology to medical and nursing students at PAHS, Nepal. I have been working as a microbiologist at Patan hospital for more than 10 years.