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Theodor Diener

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science2 years ago•4 min saved

Discoverer of Smallest Infectious Agent Dies at 102.

Theodor Diener, a plant pathologist, discovered viroids, the smallest known infectious agent, while investigating spindle tuber disease in potatoes. Viroids are one eightieth the size of many viruses and are made only of RNA, without a protein coat or the ability to encode proteins. Since Diener's discovery, scientists have identified over 30 different viroids that cause diseases in plants. Viroids have implications for scientific understanding of the origins of life and for medicine, contributing to breakthroughs like the use of messenger RNA to develop vaccines for Covid-19.

via The New York Times|

#agricultural-research #origins-of-life #plant-pathology

science2 years ago•3 min saved

Viroid Discoverer Theodor Diener Passes Away at 102

Theodor Diener, a Swiss-born scientist who spent three decades as a plant pathologist at the Agricultural Research Service, discovered the viroid, the tiniest known agent of infectious disease, while investigating potato spindle tuber disease. He determined that the cause was not a virus, as other scientists had speculated, but rather a new, far smaller pathogen — the viroid. A viroid functions in a manner similar to that of a virus, invading a cell and making it reproduce the viroid’s RNA. Dr. Diener’s discovery created “new avenues of molecular research into some of the most serious diseases afflicting plants, animals, and humans.”

via The Washington Post|

#infectious-disease #national-medal-of-science #plant-pathology