Microbial pathogenesis is a field of microbiology started at least as early as 1988, with the identification of the triune Falkow's criteria aka molecular Koch's postulates. In 1996 Fredricks and Relman proposed a seven-point list of "MOLECULAR GUIDELINES FOR ESTABLISHING MICROBIAL DISEASE CAUSATION", because of "the discovery of nucleic acids" by Watson and Crick "as the source of genetic information and as the basis for precise characterization of an organism." The subsequent development of the "ability to detect and manipulate these nucleic acid molecules in microorganisms has created a powerful means for identifying previously unknown microbial pathogens and for studying the ."