Highlighting Dr. Wayne Nicholson's Masterpieces
Below are the ten scientific publications that Dr. Wayne Nicholson considered his masterpieces:
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Nicholson, W.L. and Chambliss, G.H. 1985. Isolation and characterization of a cis-acting mutation conferring catabolite repression resistance to a-amylase synthesis in Bacillus subtilis 168. J. Bacteriol. 161: 875-881. [119] (link)
Significance: First experimental insight into the mechanism of catabolite repression in Gram-positive bacteria. Launched a new research area studied in labs all over the world resulting in hundreds of papers.
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Nicholson, W.L. and Setlow, P. 1990. Chapter 9. Sporulation, germination, and outgrowth. 391-450. In, Harwood, C.R. and Cutting, S.M. (eds). Molecular biological methods for Bacillus. J. Wiley and Sons, New York. [1,460] (link)
Significance: Collection of key protocols and "lab lore" on methods for studying sporulation and germination in B. subtilis. Still cited after 30+ years.
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Nicholson, W.L., Setlow, B., and Setlow, P. 1991. Ultraviolet irradiation of DNA complexed with a/b-type small, acid-soluble proteins from spores of Bacillus or Clostridium species makes spore photoproduct but not thymine dimers. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 88: 8288-8292. [118] (link)
Significance: Demonstrated that UV photochemistry of DNA in spores could be replicated in vitro using purified components.
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Nicholson, W.L., N. Munakata, G. Horneck, H.J. Melosh, and P. Setlow. 2000. Resistance of bacterial endospores to extreme terrestrial and extraterrestrial environments. Microbiol. Mol. Biol. Rev. 64: 548-572. [2,286] (link)
Significance: Landmark ASM review that formally established modern lithopanspermia theory. Still cited >100 times per year.
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Rebeil, R. and W.L. Nicholson. 2001. The subunit structure and catalytic mechanism of the Bacillus subtilis DNA repair enzyme spore photoproduct lyase. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 98: 9038-9043. [106] (link)
Significance: Established that SP lyase belongs to the "Radical SAM" superfamily of enzymes.
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Nicholson, W.L. 2009. Ancient micronauts: interplanetary transport of endolithic microbes by cosmic impacts. Trends Microbiol. 17: 243-250. [122] (link)
Significance: A review of the history and development of lithopanspermia theory from the ancient Greeks to the present, engaging a broad audience of diverse scientific backgrounds.
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Fajardo-Cavazos, P., F. Langenhorst, and H.J. Melosh, and W.L. Nicholson. 2009. Bacterial spores survive hypervelocity launch by spallation: implications for lithopanspermia. Astrobiology 9: 647-657. [37] (link)
Significance: An example of studies in which we experimentally tested and confirmed key predictions of lithopanspermia theory.
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Nicholson, W.L., K. Krivushin, D. Gilichinsky, and A.C. Schuerger. 2013. Growth of Carnobacterium spp. from permafrost under low pressure, temperature, and anoxic atmosphere has implications for Earth microbes on Mars. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA. 110: 666-671. [98] (link)
Significance: First demonstration that Earth bacteria could grow under the atmospheric conditions found on the surface of Mars.
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Fajardo-Cavazos, P., H. Maughan, and W.L. Nicholson. 2016. Chapter 2: Evolution in the Bacillaceae. pp. 21-58. In, Driks, A. and Eichenberger, P. (eds.), The Bacterial Spore: From Molecules to Systems. ASM Press, Washington DC. (link)
Significance: A comprehensive and detailed ASM book chapter dealing with the taxonomy, ecology, and evolution of this important family of spore-forming bacteria.
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Morrison, M.D. and W.L. Nicholson. 2018. Meta-analysis of data from spaceflight transcriptome experiments does not support the idea of a common bacterial "spaceflight response." Nature Scientific Reports 8:14403. (link)
Significance: Due to historical constraints on time, budget, mass, and volume, large sample sets and repeat experiments were often not available to spaceflight microbiology researchers. Under these circumstances, early models were postulated based on data often derived from a single experiment. Over the past few years, through rigorous experimental testing conducted in the human spaceflight environment, our lab has corrected and refined some of these lingering paradigms. This paper exemplifies our approach.
list provided to the MCS Department by Dr. Brent Christner