Key ingredient in coronavirus tests comes from Yellowstone’s lakes

[FfFfFfFF 58,133]

Microbiologist Thomas Brock was tramping through Yellowstone in the 1960s when he stumbled upon a species of bacteria that would transform medical science.

Brock was investigating the tiny life-forms that manage to eke out a living in the superheated waters of the park’s thermal pools. There, he and a student found golden mats of stringy growth in Yellowstone’s Mushroom Spring containing a microbe that produces unusual heat-resistant enzymes.

Today, those enzymes are a key component in polymerase chain reaction, or PCR, a method used widely in labs around the world to study small samples of genetic material by making millions of copies. This technique, which would have been impossible without the discovery of heat-resistant bacteria more than half a century ago, is now being used to boost the signal of viruses in most of the available tests for COVID-19.

“It’s almost like a copy machine,” Presbyterian College’s Shull says of the technique.

As the novel coronavirus sweeps around the world, testing has become the crux of tracking—and hopefully slowing—the pandemic’s advance. While authorities have been slow in making COVID-19 tests widely available in the U.S., the PCR process that is the vital backbone of the test is relatively simple and quick, thanks to a cluster of bacteria thriving in the thermal pools of Yellowstone.

When Brock went to Yellowstone to study hot springs, he never imagined his work would revolutionize the study of DNA. “I was free to do what is called basic research ... Some people called it useless because it was not focused on practical ends,” Brock said in an acceptance speech for an honorary degree from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/2020/03/key-ingredient-in-coronavirus-tests-comes-from-yellowstone/

[BELLYACHE 1,817]

i really love and is interested in ALL your posts. thank you for these valuable info.

[Fantina 3,438]

Knew the answer before I clicked on the topic. We have been using Taq polymerase (from the bacteria Thermus aquaticus found in Yellowstone) in PCR reactions because it is very stable in high temperatures. This discovery revolutionized PCR, because before that researchers would put enzymes after each cycle ( essentially there is a stage in PCR that involves high temperatures and the enzyme used up to that point  from E.coli wouldn't survive).

PCR is basically used to make multiple copies of a specific fragment of DNA, like a gene for example.

Fun fact: My lab issues a call for volunteers who wanted to help with the research of COVID-19. I would have gladly joined, but since I am a 2nd year student, I hardly know all of the lab protocols, so I would just be a waste of space.

[HermioneT 1,998]

Thanks for posting this! I remember having learnt about the PCR progress in biology class back in school. Never knew the part about the Yellowstone bacteria until now! Must be a special feeling to be the scientists who discovered these bacterias by, well, maybe not really coincidence.

I love these kind of threads

[darkchylde 14,857]

i knew this post would be yours!

Spoiler

i also knew i'd have to read it four times to understand it