George Edward Fox (born December 17, 1945) is an astrobiologist, a Professor Emeritus and researcher at the

University of Houston The University of Houston (; ) is a Public university, public research university in Houston, Texas, United States. It was established in 1927 as Houston Junior College, a coeducational institution and one of multiple junior colleges formed in ...

. He is an elected fellow of the American Academy of Microbiology, the

American Association for the Advancement of Science The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) is a United States–based international nonprofit with the stated mission of promoting cooperation among scientists, defending scientific freedom, encouraging scientific responsib ...

, American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering and the International Astrobiology Society. Fox received his B.S. degree in 1967, and completed his Ph.D. degree in 1974; both in

chemical engineering Chemical engineering is an engineering field which deals with the study of the operation and design of chemical plants as well as methods of improving production. Chemical engineers develop economical commercial processes to convert raw materials ...

Syracuse University Syracuse University (informally 'Cuse or SU) is a Private university, private research university in Syracuse, New York, United States. It was established in 1870 with roots in the Methodist Episcopal Church but has been nonsectarian since 1920 ...

. From the Fall of 1973 until 1977, Fox was a research associate with Carl R. Woese at the

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC, U of I, Illinois, or University of Illinois) is a public land-grant research university in the Champaign–Urbana metropolitan area, Illinois, United States. Established in 1867, it is the f ...

. Their collaboration initially focused on 5S ribosomal RNA where they established the use of a comparative sequence approach to predict

RNA Ribonucleic acid (RNA) is a polymeric molecule that is essential for most biological functions, either by performing the function itself (non-coding RNA) or by forming a template for the production of proteins (messenger RNA). RNA and deoxyrib ...

secondary structure. Next, utilizing

16S ribosomal RNA 16S ribosomal RNA (or 16 S rRNA) is the RNA component of the 30S subunit of a prokaryotic ribosome ( SSU rRNA). It binds to the Shine-Dalgarno sequence and provides most of the SSU structure. The genes coding for it are referred to as 16S ...

finger printing technology developed in the Woese laboratory in large part by Mitchell Sogin, Fox and Woese discovered the third form of life now known as the

Archaea Archaea ( ) is a Domain (biology), domain of organisms. Traditionally, Archaea only included its Prokaryote, prokaryotic members, but this has since been found to be paraphyletic, as eukaryotes are known to have evolved from archaea. Even thou ...

. It has been said that their 1977 paper “may be the most important paper ever in microbiology”. This seminal paper is now considered to be a PNAS classic. Fox and Woese also introduced the idea of a progenote as a primordial entity in the evolution of life. In the Fall of 1977, Fox moved on to the

and as a new Assistant Professor in Biochemical & Biophysical Sciences, continued to collaborate with Woese. This resulted in the 1980 publication of the “big tree”, the first comprehensive tree of bacterial relationships. Fox also recognized the limitations that 16S rRNA sequences could provide when identifying closely related species and addressed the question of “How Close is Close?". He became a full professor there in 1986. His current research centers around understanding the early

evolution Evolution is the change in the heritable Phenotypic trait, characteristics of biological populations over successive generations. It occurs when evolutionary processes such as natural selection and genetic drift act on genetic variation, re ...

of life with particular interest in the origin and evolution of the ribosome. He has also assisted NASA scientists on multiple occasions in characterizing relevant microbial communities.

Books describing discovery of Archaea

1. Quammen , D.(2018).“The Tangled Tree: A Radical New History of Life.” Simon & Schuster . 2. Sapp, J. (2009).“The New Foundations of Evolution,” Oxford University Press,.

References

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Google Scholar Profile

Google Scholar

at the University of Houston, Houston, Texas

BBC News

The Space Show Broadcast

Fellow in the International Society for the Study of the Origin of Life (ISSOL)

Four Pioneering Scientists to Discuss “The Origins of the RNA World”

The Library of Congress Astrobiology Chair Nathaniel Comfort Discusses the RNA World with Pioneering Scientists

Most important paper ever in microbiology? Woese & Fox, 1977, Discovery of Archaea

Details of Ribosome Structure, Function and History Aaron Gronstal, 2020, NASA Astrobiology Exobiology Program, Center for the Origin of Life (COOL)

Ribosome Origins and Evolution {{DEFAULTSORT:Fox, George E. 1945 births Living people Syracuse University alumni American astrobiologists

See also

Books describing discovery of Archaea

References

External links