Scholthof, Karen-Beth G. (Author)
In the early twentieth century, viruses had yet to be defined in a material way. Instead, they were known better by what they were not -- not bacteria, not culturable, and not visible with a light microscope. As with the ill-defined gene of genetics, viruses were microbes whose nature had not been revealed. Some clarity arrived in 1929 when Francis O. Holmes, a scientist at the Boyce Thompson Institute for Plant Research (Yonkers, NY) reported that Tobacco mosaic virus (TMV) could produce local necrotic lesions on tobacco plants and that these lesions were in proportion to dilutions of the inoculum. Holmes' method, the local lesion assay, provided the first evidence that viruses were discrete infectious particles, thus setting the stage for physicochemical studies of plant viruses. In a field where there are few eponymous methods or diseases, Holmes' assay continues to be a useful tool for the study of plant viruses. TMV was a success because the local lesion assay made the virus visible and standardized the work of virology towards determining the nature of the virus.
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Book
Creager, Angela N.;
(2002)
The Life of a Virus: Tobacco Mosaic Virus as an Experimental Model, 1930-1965
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Article
Karen-Beth G. Scholthof;
Lorenzo J. Washington;
April DeMell;
Maria R. Mendoza;
Will B. Cody;
(2022)
Practicing virology: making and knowing a mid-twentieth century experiment with Tobacco mosaic virus
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K.-B.G. Scholthof;
(2017)
Spicing up the N gene: F. O. Holmes and Tobacco mosaic virus resistance in Capsicum and Nicotiana plants
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Rheinberger, Hans-Jörg;
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Intersections: Some Thoughts on Instruments and Objects in the Experimental Context of the Life Sciences
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Schattenbilder: Zur elektronenmikroskopischen Photographie in den Biowissenschaften
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The Microscope and the Eye: A History of Reflections, 1740--1870
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Neicu, Maria;
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Taming the “Publication Machine”: Generating Unity, Engaging the Trading Zones
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(2001)
The Royal Society and the Microscope
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Lewis, Jeffrey William;
(2002)
Continuity in German Science, 1937--1972: Genealogy and Strategies of the TMV/Molecular Biology Community
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K.-B.G. Scholthof;
(2004)
Tobacco mosaic virus: A model system for plant biology
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Pyle, Andrew;
(2006)
Malebranche on Animal Generation: Preexistence and the Microscope
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(2009)
Reading Art, Reading Nature. How Microscopic Literature Formed Seventeenth-Century Readers
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La conquista del mondo invisibile. Parassiti e microbi nella storia della civiltà
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Peres, Marília;
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Photographing Microscopic Preparations in the Nineteenth Century: Techniques and Instrumentation
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Cellular Dimensions and Cell Dynamics, or the Difficulty over Capturing Time and Space in the Era of Electron Microscopy
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(1999)
L'homme et les microbes, XVIIe-XXe siècle
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(2003)
Strategies to Improve the Reliability of a Theory: The Experiment of Bacterial Invasion into Cultured Epithelial Cells
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Uncertainty in Bøhr's Response to the Heisenberg Microscope
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Keineswegs
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