History of the Department of Bacteriology
University of Wisconsin-Madison
Early Instruction
The first UW Bacteriology class taught in 1881-83 by Professor
William Trealease, who incorporated bacteriology into the general
botany course. This is believed to be the first bacteriology class
taught at any American university. Professor Edward Birge (Botany)
organized the first formal course in bacteriology in 1886.
Establishment of the department and location
1914 Dept of Agricultural Bacteriology was formally established
with E. G. Hastings as the first chair.
1947 Departmental name was changed from Agricultural Bacteriology
to Bacteriology.
The early bacteriologists were housed in South Hall. In 1903 Agriculture
Hall was completed and the group moved there. The current bacteriology
building was occupied in 1955.
(Current members of the Bacteriology faculty are denoted by boldface
type)
Major Research Contributions Throughout the Years
A. Food and Dairy Microbiology
1894 Russell solves the problem of incomplete sterilization of
canned peas at Landreth Canning Company in Manitowoc, which changes
industrial sterilization practices nationally. He traced the "exploding
cans" problem to bacteria that fermented sugar and produced gas
and solved the problem by increasing pressure without increasing
the sterilization time.
1894-1907 Russell realized the prevalence of tuberculosis in Wisconsin
dairy cows and organized a statewide program of education, with
changes in state law, that dramatically reduced the level of the
disease, with significant enhancement of Wisconsin's prestige as
a dairy state. Starting in 1899, E.G. Hastings was a collaborator
and this led to the manufacture and distribution of "Koch's Old
Tuberculin" by the Bacteriology Department.
1895 W.D. Frost began his studies on streptococci in milk, developing
detection methods and studying antagonism among bacteria.
1899-1901 Russell and E.G. Hastings demonstrated at industrial
scale that lower temperature pasteurization kills tuberculosis bacilli
without damaging the appearance of milk, helping increase the use
of pasteurization of the Wisconsin milk supply.
1889 E. G. Hastings begins work with Russell on pasteurization
of milk, cream, whey. He recognized the need for reliable starer
cultures in manufacture of Swiss cheese and manufactured and supplied
starter cultures to cheese makers.
1901-1903 Russell and S.M. Babcock (Agricultural Chemistry, now
Biochemistry) demonstrated the value and utility of cold curing
cheese, which greatly improved the quality of Wisconsin cheese as
well as the profitability.
1909 Frost developed methods for making dehydrated culture media
and invented the Frost gasometer.
1910's Hastings manufactured and distributed johnin, a diagnostic
of Johne's disease in cattle, as well the antigen used in the serological
test for Bang's disease in cattle.
1930's Elizabeth McCoy became involved with staphylococci food
poisoning outbreaks and ecological studies of survival and growth
of staphylococci in dairy barns, manure and soils. She also studied
botulinum food poisoning from canned bread, pheasants, smoked fish
and worked on vaccine development.
1966 E.M. Foster became head of the Food Research Institute when
it moved to Madison. Subsequently, under Professor Foster's leadership,
the Department of Food Microbiology and Toxicology was established.
B. Biological Nitrogen Fixation
1913 E. B. Fred was hired and began the legacy that made UW a world
leader in the study of biological nitrogen-fixation. Early work
involved the basic chemical processes by which nitrogen- fixing
bacteria of leguminous plants assimilate atmospheric nitrogen. Fred
also studied cultural and physiological properties of rhizobia,
longevity in soil and infection mechanisms with collaborators W.
H. Wright, McCoy , I. L. Baldwin and P.W. Wilson.
1920's and 1930's The Department supplied cultures of rhizobia
to Wisconsin farmers for nitrogen- fixing inoculants for various
legumes and developed large-scale culture methods.
1932 Fred, Baldwin and McCoy published the definitive text on nitrogen
fixation, "Root-nodule Bacteria and Leguminous Plants". This is
still affectionately known as the "root nodule bible".
1930's P.W. Wilson began his studies of the biochemistry of nitrogen
fixation, documented in his book "The Biochemistry of Symbiotic
Nitrogen Fixation" published in 1940.
1978 Vinod K. Shah and W. J. Brill identified the critical region
of nitrogenase, the enzyme responsible for converting atmospheric
nitrogen to ammonia.
1980's Gary Roberts began his collaboration with P.W. Ludden
(Biochemistry) on the mechanism by which cells synthesize the complex
metal center at the active site of nitrogenase, the enzyme responsible
for nitrogen fixation. Roberts and Ludden also collaborated on unraveling
the mechanism by which nitrogenase activity is regulated by the
attachment and removal, of a small molecule to the enzyme.
C. Bacterial fermentations
1920's Fred and Peterson (Biochemistry) solved fermentation problems
at Commercial Solvents Company in Indiana and Illinois. Throughout
the years, they worked on many other bacterial fermentations, including
the production of acetone during WWII.
1920's Fred and Peterson studied fermentations of corn silage,
pickles, sauerkraut. This research led to mechanisms and causative
agents of lactic acid and acetic acid production and other products
from carbohydrates of plant origin and eventually to fermentations
yielding acetone and butanol. Corn and molasses were used as substrates.
1930's Departmental collaborations with numerous faculty with Red
Star Yeast Company (Milwaukee) and other companies led to improved
fermentations and industrial support for outstanding graduate students.
1940's McCoy studied bacteriophage interference in commercial fermentations,
phage characterizations by serology, phage-host patterns, phage
growth cycle, host resistance, and produced early electron micrographs
of phage.
1940's McCoy and associates were instrumental in classifying the
organism responsible for butyl alcohol fermentations, Clostridum
acetobutylicum, maximizing productivity and identifying other products.
They worked on commercial operations and patented solutions to bacteriophage
outbreak problems.
1990's - Thomas Jeffries' research (Forest Products Laboratory
and Bacteriology) resulted in improved yeast strains for converting
agricultural residues such as wood pulp into renewable fuels. Basic
discoveries have increased ethanol yields and yeast growth under
fermentative conditions.
D. Antibiotics Research
1940's During WWII W. H. Peterson (Biochemistry), Marv Johnson
(Biochemistry), E. McCoy and R. H. Burris (Biochemistry) worked
on aspects of antibiotics production on campus, while K. Raper was
working at the Northen Region Research Labs in Peoria and W. B.
Sarles was in Washington D.C. and the United Kingdom. Raper's isolate
of Penicillium chrysogenum was the parent strain of all high-producing
strains.
1950's McCoy developed screening methods for new antibiotics and
discovered oligomycin an important enzyme inhibitor. McCoy also
studied the genetic nature of antibiotic resistance as well as changes
in host flora after administration of antibiotics.
1950's Stanley Knight identified triacetin, a treatment of athlete's
foot and skin fungus. This was licensed to Ayerst and sold under
the name Enzactin and became WARF's 10th most profitable patent.
E. Waste treatment research
1904 Russell and E. F. Turneaure (Engineering) studied the process
of sewage treatment and disposal including the survival of bacterial
sewage organisms in the Chicago Drainage Canal. They showed that
the typhoid fever causative agent did not survive the rigors of
travel through the canal and rivers leading to the St Louis water
supply.
1910's Russell, Turneaure and D. Mead worked on improvement of
wastes of the cheese and butter industries.
1940's Sarles, Kessler and Rohlich (Civil Eng) investigated new
methods to test for efficiency of the activated sludge method of
sewage treatment.
1960s? McCoy and UW engineers studied the microbiology of the ponding
process for feedlot wastes.
F. Environmental Microbiology and Microbial Ecology
1930's?? McCoy looked at the roles of bacteria in fresh water including
precipitation of calcium carbonate deposits in fresh water lakes.
She showed that fungi and actinomycetes were part of the aquatic
flora; and studied alewife and salmon spawning in polluted rivers
and when returning to open lakes.
1970's Thomas Brock began his pioneering work on the study of life
in extreme environments. He isolated Thermus aquaticus, the bacterium
which produces Tac polymerase. This enzyme is used in the Polymerase
Chain Reaction (PCR), a DNA amplification procedure that is central
to much of the biotechnology industry.
1970's Thomas Brock studied the microbiology of Lake Mendota and
other lakes, establishing basal data for the development of the
microbial ecology of freshwater.
1970's T. Kent Kirk began his work on lignin degradation, which
is a critical issue for the pulp and paper industry. He was the
first to identify the enzymes involved in lignin degradation and
he developed detailed descriptions of their catalytic mechanisms.
1980's Timothy Donohue began a long-term project to determined
how photosynthetic bacteria obtain nutrients from toxins like formaldehyde.
This identified the mechanisms by which cells sense the presence
of these compounds in their surroundings, leading to the development
of cultures that remove toxins like formaldehyde from contaminated
ecosystems.
1990's Gary Roberts began a collaboration with P.W. Ludden
(Biochemistry) on the molecular basis of bacterial oxidation of
carbon monoxide (CO) to harmless CO2. This led to the
elucidation of the mechanism CO oxidation, as well as to the identification
of a novel protein that specifically senses CO in the environment.
1990's Glenn Chambliss performed research on the use of
microorganisms as bioremediators of explosive compounds such as
TNT and nitroglycerine.
G. Host-Parasite Interactions
1980's-1990's John Mansfield began his work on the nature
of how animals respond to the presence of trypanosomes and how trypanosomes
avoid those responses. The research has elucidated many fundamental
properties of both host and parasite and, because typanosomes are
responsible for some major human diseases such as sleeping sickness,
will continue to have significant implications for human health.
1980's-1990's Marsha Betley made important contributions to the
field of bacterial toxins, including their structure, function,
evolution, role in pathogenesis and relationship to their host bacteria.
1990's Jerald Ensign discovered two new microbial insecticides
that promise to be the next generation of biological insecticides
improving upon Bacillus thuringiensis. The toxin genes are being
transformed into plants such as corn and soybeans with the goal
of decreasing dependence on chemical pesticides.
1990's Heidi Goodrich-Blair began work on bacterial-animal
host interactions by studying the interaction of a bacterium, Xenorhdbdus
nematophilus, with its two animal hosts, a small soil-dwelling
nematode and an insect. The work should improve agriculture by providing
alternatives to insecticides and, more generally, will lead to new
ways of promoting beneficial bacteria while selectively combating
infectious bacteria.
1990's Stephen Barclay began studies Pneumocystis carinii,
an important new pathogen that causes pneumonia, especially in immuno-compromised
patients. The research has identified novel genes that may be essential
for pathogenesis by this organism.
1990's Katrina Forest used X-rays to determine the structure
of a protein responsible for attachment of bacteria to their host
cells. This research may eventually lead to vaccines against several
bacterial pathogens.
H. Molecular and Physiological Analyses of Microbial Processes
More recently the department's research has focused largely on
the fundamental processes that underlie the many different properties
of microbes. Areas of research include decoding the genetic information
of microbes, unraveling microbial metabolic pathways, undertaking
molecular modeling studies, understanding communication and regulatory
mechanisms of microbes and determining the mechanisms that enable
microbes to survive in extreme environments.
1960's-1980's Jack Pate became a world authority on bacterial motility,
particularly the "gliding motility" of Cytophaga, showing that the
cells move by controlling the motion of the cell surface.
1970's-1980's William McClain began his research on the
nature and function of tRNAs, which are critical components of all
living cells. He helped establish the nature of tRNA processing,
which serves as a paradigm of RNA processing, a process that is
crucial to gene expression in all cell types. McClain also collaborated
in devising small model RNA substrates that revolutionized work
in RNA processing and in tRNA decoding properties.
1980's Timothy Donohue initiated work in the field of bacterial
photosynthesis, discovering new ways for photosynthetic cells to
derive energy from sunlight. He studies assembly of light gathering
systems within photosynthetic cells and analyzes how light and other
nutrients control genes for essential photosynthetic processes.
1980's Marcin Filutowicz undertook the analysis of plasmid
replication. Because plasmids are critical for a wide range of the
properties of bacteria, from the ability to cause disease to the
ability to provide benefits to plants and animals, there will be
substantial practical results from this work.
1980's Richard Gourse began to unravel the molecular basis
for the very high level expression of certain genes in bacteria,
identifying new genetic elements for such expression and solving
a very old problem of how bacteria manipulate the expression of
certain important genes in response to their rate of growth. Understanding
high level gene expression is critical to the biotechnology industry.
1980's Jorge Escalante identified a number of new genes
and their respective enzymes involved in the biosynthesis of vitamin
B12. Besides providing a much better understanding of this synthetic
pathway, the work has implications about the mechanisms by which
organisms use vitamin precursors in their environment, with implications
for evolution of enzymes and pathways. Escalante also deciphered
the biosynthetic pathway of a related compound, cobalamin.
1990's William McClain began his analysis of how enzymes
identify the proper amino acid to "charge" to each specific tRNA.
The highly successful approach used a combination of theoretical
and "modeling" predictions in combination with genetic alterations
and analysis. The work has implications for evolution, as well as
for understanding the basic machinery of all cells.
1990's Jerald Ensign initiated work on a process for producing
transgenic plants containing high levels of essential amino acids
using a bacterial protein gene.
1990's Robert Landick, continuing his work begun at Washington
University, made important contributions to the molecular mechanisms
of gene expression by studying the structure and function of RNA
polymerase in both bacteria and in higher organisms.
1990's Diana Downs began her research on the integration
of metabolic pathways in cells, developing both methodologies for
the analysis as well as new insights into this complex process.
She identified previously unknown interactions between the pathway
for the biosynthesis of the vitamin thiamine and a range of other
pathways.
Educational Programs
In 1999, U.S. News and World Report ranked the graduate program
in Microbiology at UW- Madison third in the nation and first among
public universities.
Since 1914, over 400 students have received their Ph.D. degrees
in Bacteriology and have made important contributions in academic,
industrial and government laboratories throughout the world. Tatum
(Ph.D. Biochemistry and Bacteriology in 1934 under Peterson and
Fred) received the Nobel prize in medicine and physiology in 1958
with Ledeberg and Beadle.
Thousands of students have received their bachelor's degree in
Bacteriology over the years and are highly sought after by employers
and graduate programs. Currently, approximately 280 students are
bacteriology majors.
Bacteriology offers a breadth of courses in microbiology for many
different majors and teaches microbiology to all students who need
a general course. Bacteriology has a long tradition of outreach
instruction and still offers Farm bacteriology through the CALS
short course program.
American Society for Microbiology (formerly the Society of American
Bacteriologists)
Bacteriology has been instrumental in shaping this professional
society since its inception. Seven bacteriology faculty members
have served as president (Russell-1908, Hastings-1923, Fred-1932,
Baldwin-1944, PW Wilson-1957, Sarles-1967, Foster-1970). Others
have served as officers and editors throughout the years.
This updated history of the Department of Bacteriology was prepared
by Gary Roberts and Judy Peterson from departmental archival materials
in August, 1999.
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