Escherichia coli wins record number of Nobel Prizes: E. coli has contributed and the year that they received the prize.
(from A Report from American Academy of Microbiology [p.2], 2011)
1958: Bacterial sex, and other ways bacteria can share genes with one another
1959: DNA replication, how life copies its genetic code
1965: Gene regulation, how genes are turned on or off
1968: Genetic code, the language in which our DNA is written
1969: Virus replication, how viruses reproduce inside cells
1978: Restriction enzymes, cellular "scissors" that allow scientists to cut DNA
1980: Recombinant DNA, the creation of the first genetically engineered DNA
1989: RNA as an enzyme, additional roles for RNA discovered
1997: ATP generation, how cells make ATP, the energy molecule that powers life
1999: Signal sequences on proteins, one way that cells organize themselves
2008: Green fluorescent protein, a tag scientists use to track cell components
