Abstract
THE well-known pioneer experiments of Griffith1, in 1928, proved the phenomenon of transformation in the Pneumococcus; the genetic characteristic transmitted was the virulence, of which the elaboration of the capsule is the phenotypic expression. Avery, MacLeod and MacCarthy2 elucidated the cause: the genetic material, freed in solution, is sensitive to deoxyribonuclease; it is thus DNA. This pattern of ‘transfer’ has since been observed in other bacteria.
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References
Griffith, F., J. Hyg., 27, 113 (1928).
Avery, O. T., MacLeod, C. M., and MacCarthy, M., J. Exp. Med., 79, 137 (1944).
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VAN RIEL, J. Transformation of Leptospira. Nature 204, 203 (1964). https://doi.org/10.1038/204203a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/204203a0
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