IMPORTANT DISCOVERIES IN MICROBIOLOGY

he called “bacterium coli commune” and which was later to be called Escherichia coli. A strain he isolated in 1886 is added to the collection

upon its founding (NCTC 86).

the agar-coated glass dish

for culturing bacteria; earlier

attempts at culturing involved

potato slices

and gelatin.

Robert Koch provides proof of

germ theory by injecting pure

cultures of the Anthrax bacilli

into mice.

isolates NCTC 160 Salmonella

enterica subsp. enterica

serotype Typhi from the

spleen of a typhoid patient

during the Boer War. His

wartime experiences later

lead him to

persuade the

armed forces to

produce 10 million

vaccine doses for

WWI troops in

northern France.

first bacterial strain registered

in the collection. NCTC 1 is

a strain of Shigella flexneri

recovered from Private Ernst

Cable, a WWI soldier who

died from dysentery. It is

resistant to penicillin

and erythromycin

even though it was

isolated before

the discovery of

antibiotics.

Waksman and Albert

Schatz lead a systematic

effort to screen soil

bacteria for antimicrobial

compounds. NCTC later

acquires the Streptomyces

griseus strain (NCTC 4523)

from which they isolated

streptomycin.

established to “provide

a trustworthy source of

authentic bacteria for

use in scientific studies.”

Frederick William

Andrewes deposits the

first cultures.

accidentally discovers

penicillin. He returns from

vacation and notices that a

culture plate left lying out

had become overgrown

with staphylococci colonies,

except where mold was

growing. He explores further

after his former assistant

Merlin Price reminds him,

“That’s how you discovered

lysozyme.” Over the next 20

years, Fleming deposits 16

samples with NCTC,

including a sample

of Haemophilus

influenza isolated

from his own nose in

November 1935.

freeze-drying of samples

to ensure longevity and

streamline storage and

shipment.

Phillip White co-develop

a scheme for classifying

salmonellae by serotype.

Charles C. Shepard isolate Legionella

pneumophilia (NCTC 11230 and

11192) as the bacterial pathogen

behind the outbreak of a new

pulmonary disease at a convention in

Philadelphia.

establish DNA hybridization as a more

reliable basis for classifying clinical

isolates of Enterobacteriaceae. He

uses the new method to replace

type strains with more representative

specimens and identify numerous new

microbial species, including Moellerella

wisconsensis (NCTC 12132), Leminorella

grimontii (NCTC 12152), Enterobacter

asburiae (NCTC 12123), and Citrobacter

braakii (NCTC 13630).

Cowan and Kenneth Steel

publish ‘Diagnostic Tables for

the Common Medical Bacteria’

in the Journal of Hygiene.

Demand is so great the journal

reprints and distributes them in

pamphlet form. The work forms

the basis of Cowan & Steel’s

Manual for the Identification

of Medical Bacteria, first

published in 1965 and a benchtop

staple for years to come.

year effort to characterize every

organism in the collection

safety microbiologist

Betty Constance Hobbs

publishes a study establishing

Clostridium perfringens as the

cause of many outbreaks of

food poisoning. She eventually

deposits more than 20 NCTC

strains of bacteria associated

with food-borne illness.

Joshua Lederberg produce the

first gene map of E. coli K12

(NCTC 10538). Despite being

one of the most intensively

studied organisms in the 20th

century, no one definitively

knows why it is called “K12”.

a general microbial collection

to bacteria of medical or

veterinary interest.

Culture Collections’

Organization, of which

NCTC is a member, is

established.

DNA sequencing instrument,

invented by Lloyd Smith, is

commercialized by Applied

Biosystems.

winner Barry Marshall drinks

a culture of the Helicobacter

pylori (NCTC 11638 and

11639) to prove his theory

that most

stomach

ulcers are

caused by

bacteria.

Fraser, and colleagues at TIGR elucidate

the first complete genome sequence of a

microorganism, Haemophilus influenza, and

submit the sequence to NCBI.

University scientists

led by Watt Webb

and Harold Craighead

publish the first report

of using arrays of zeromode

waveguides

for single-molecule

sequencing

SMRT Sequencing system, introducing

scientists to the long-read sequencing

platform that will ultimately become the gold

standard for generating complete, closed

microbial genomes.

The largest recorded outbreak of foodborne

hemolytic-uremic syndrome, eventually linked

to German-grown sprouts, occurs in Europe.

The organism responsible, a Shiga toxic E. coli

(NCTC 13562).

Institute (WSI) launch a five-year

project to sequence 3,000 bacterial

strains from the collection using PacBio

sequencing technology.

Sanger scientists

publish the genome

of NCTC 1, generated with SMRT

Sequencing, and compare it to other

S. flexneri isolates collected in 1954,

1984, and 2002.

Alexander and Mohammed-

Abbas Fazal complete the

extraction of DNA from more

than 3000 NCTC species and

samples are delivered to WSI

for sequencing using PacBio

technology.