TY - JOUR
T1 - Phylogeny and beyond
T2 - Scientific, historical, and conceptual significance of the first tree of life
AU - Pace, Norman R.
AU - Sapp, Jan
AU - Goldenfeld, Nigel
N1 - Funding Information:
However, the methods and data used in the work by Woese and Fox (1) were unfamiliar to most biologists, even mo lecular biologists. Traditional biologists, students of plants and animals, paid little attention, because the results had little bearing on their interests. Because of a joint press release by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and the National Science Foundation that supported Woese’s research, the paper was heralded on the front page of The New York Times for discovery of “a third form of life” (2). However, the few biologists who noticed sometimes reacted negatively, and articles denouncing the claims were published. Subsequent developments showed that the methods and conclusions of the paper were sound.
Funding Information:
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS. We thank Professors Carl Woese and George Fox for reviewing the manuscript for accuracy. N.R.P. is supported by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, J.S. is supported by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, and N.G. is supported by National Science Foundation Grant EF-0526747.
PY - 2012/1/24
Y1 - 2012/1/24
N2 - In 1977, Carl Woese and George Fox published a brief paper in PNAS that established, for the first time, that the overall phylogenetic structure of the living world is tripartite. We describe the way in which this monumental discovery was made, its context within the historical development of evolutionary thought, and how it has impacted our understanding of the emergence of life and the characterization of the evolutionary process in its most general form.
AB - In 1977, Carl Woese and George Fox published a brief paper in PNAS that established, for the first time, that the overall phylogenetic structure of the living world is tripartite. We describe the way in which this monumental discovery was made, its context within the historical development of evolutionary thought, and how it has impacted our understanding of the emergence of life and the characterization of the evolutionary process in its most general form.
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U2 - 10.1073/pnas.1109716109
DO - 10.1073/pnas.1109716109
M3 - Review article
C2 - 22308526
AN - SCOPUS:84858962167
SN - 0027-8424
VL - 109
SP - 1011
EP - 1018
JO - Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
JF - Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
IS - 4
ER -