Transformation was discovered by :a)Griffithb)Watson and Crickc)Meselson and Stahld)Hershey and ChaseCorrect answer is option 'A'. Can you explain this answer?

Question

Answer

Transformation was first studied by S.F. Griffith in 1928 while studying Streptococcus Pneumonia. He found that R-Type non virulent bacteria pick up virulence from heat killed virulent S- type bacteria and transform into virulent forms. It was this experiment which indicated presence of a 'transforming principle' which was later found out to be DNA.

Answer

Transformation was discovered in Streptococcus pneumoniae in 1928 by Frederick Griffith; in 1944, Oswald T. Avery, Colin M. MacLeod, and Maclyn McCarty demonstrated that the “transforming principle” was DNA. Both results are milestones in the elucidation of the molecular nature of genes.

Answer

Transformation was discovered by Fredrick Griffith on streptococcus pneumoniae.when he was doing experiment on genetic material.

Answer

Transformation was discovered by Griffith

Introduction
- Transformation is the process by which foreign DNA is introduced into a cell, resulting in the acquisition of new traits.
- This phenomenon was first discovered by Frederick Griffith in 1928.

Frederick Griffith
- Frederick Griffith was a British bacteriologist who conducted experiments with Streptococcus pneumoniae, a bacterium that causes pneumonia in mammals.
- He was trying to develop a vaccine against pneumonia.

Experiment
- Griffith conducted an experiment using two strains of Streptococcus pneumoniae: a virulent (pathogenic) strain and a non-virulent (non-pathogenic) strain.
- The virulent strain had a polysaccharide capsule that protected it from the host's immune system, allowing it to cause disease.
- The non-virulent strain lacked the capsule and was unable to cause disease.

Results
- Griffith injected mice with four different combinations of the two strains:
1. Mice injected with the virulent strain died.
2. Mice injected with the non-virulent strain survived.
3. Mice injected with heat-killed virulent strain survived.
4. Mice injected with a mixture of heat-killed virulent strain and live non-virulent strain died.

Observations
- Griffith observed that the mice injected with the mixture of heat-killed virulent strain and live non-virulent strain died.
- Upon further investigation, he found that the live non-virulent strain had been transformed into a virulent strain.

Conclusion
- Griffith concluded that some substance from the heat-killed virulent strain had transformed the live non-virulent strain into a virulent strain.
- This transformation was heritable, as the new traits were passed on to subsequent generations of bacteria.

Significance
- Griffith's discovery of transformation was a groundbreaking finding in the field of genetics.
- It provided the first evidence that DNA could transfer genetic information from one organism to another.
- This paved the way for further research into the structure and function of DNA, eventually leading to the discovery of its double helix structure by Watson and Crick in 1953.

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