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Isolating the Hereditary Material | Learn Science at Scitable

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How did scientists determine that DNA is the hereditary material? This groundbreaking discovery involved a series of experiments with bacteria and bacteriophages, or viruses that infect bacteria. First, while studying bacteria that cause pneumonia, Frederick Griffith discovered that nonvirulent strains of Streptococcus pneumoniae could be transformed into highly virulent strains by the transfer of certain heat-stable molecules from highly virulent strains. Later, this so-called “transforming principle” was identified as DNA by Oswald Avery and his colleagues. Finally, Alfred Hershey and Martha Chase confirmed that DNA was passed from one generation to another.

Isolating the Hereditary Material | Learn Science at Scitable This page has been archived and is no longer updated Isolating Hereditary Material: Frederick Griffith, Oswald Avery, Alfred Hershey, and Martha Chase By: Clare O'Connor, Ph.D. ( Biology Department, Boston College ) © 2008 Nature Education Citation: O'Connor, C. (2008) Isolating hereditary material: Frederick Griffith, Oswald Avery, Alfred Hershey, and Martha Chase. Nature Education 1( 1 ) :105 How did scientists determine that DNA is the hereditary material? Groundbreaking experiments by Griffith, Avery, Hershey, and Chase dis

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