The search for Genetic material started during the mid-nineteenth century.

The principle
of inheritance was discovered by Mendel. Based on his investigation, Mendel concluded
that some ‘factors’ are transferred from one generation to another. Mendel’s Law of
Inheritance was the basis for the researchers on genetic material. Keeping his
conclusions in mind, scientists who came after him, focused on chromosomes in search
of genetic material. Even though the chromosomal components were identified, the
material which is responsible for inheritance remained unanswered. It took a long time
for the acceptance of DNA as the genetic transformation. Let’s go through a brief
account of the discovery of genetic material and Griffith experiment.

Griffith Experiment & Transforming Principle

Griffith experiment was a stepping stone for the discovery of genetic material. Frederick
Griffith experiments were conducted with Streptococcus pneumoniae.

During the experiment, Griffith cultured Streptococcus pneumoniae bacteria which

showed two patterns of growth. One culture plate consisted of smooth shiny colonies
(S) while other consisted of rough colonies (R). The difference was due to the presence
of mucous coat in S strain bacteria, whereas the R strain bacteria lacked them.

Experiment: Griffith injected both S and R strains to mice. The one which was infected
with the S strain developed pneumonia and died while that infected with the R strain
stayed alive.

In the second stage, Griffith heat-killed the S strain bacteria and injected into mice, but
the mice stayed alive. Then, he mixed the heat-killed S and live R strains. This mixture
was injected into mice and they died. In addition, he found living S strain bacteria in
dead mice.
Conclusion: Based on the observation, Griffith concluded that R strain bacteria had
been transformed by S strain bacteria. The R strain inherited some ‘transforming
principle’ from the heat-killed S strain bacteria which made them virulent. And he
assumed this transforming principle as genetic material.

DNA as Genetic Material

Griffith experiment was a turning point towards the discovery of hereditary material.
However, it failed to explain the biochemistry of genetic material. Hence, a group of
scientists, Oswald Avery, Colin MacLeod and Maclyn McCarty continued the Griffith
experiment in search of biochemical nature of the hereditary material. Their discovery
revised the concept of protein as genetic material to DNA as genetic material.

Avery and his team extracted and purified proteins, DNA, RNA and other biomolecules
from the heat-killed S strain bacteria. They discovered that DNA is the genetic material
and it is alone responsible for the transformation of the R strain bacteria. They observed
that protein-digesting enzymes (proteases) and RNA-digesting enzymes (RNases)
didn’t inhibit transformation but DNase did. Although it was not accepted by all, they
concluded DNA as genetic material.
For more details on hereditary material and difference between DNA and RNA, visit
BYJU’S.

Frequently Asked Questions on Griffith Experiment

Q1

What was Griffith’s experiment and why was it important?

Griffith’s experiment was the first experiment which suggested that bacteria can transfer
genetic information through a process called transformation.
Q2

What is the conclusion of Griffith experiment?

The experiment concluded that bacteria are capable of transfering genetic information
through transformation.
Q3

What was the most significant conclusion of Griffith’s experiments with

pneumonia in mice?

The experiment conducted by Griffith found that bacteria are capable of transfering
genetic information through transformation.
Q4

What did Frederick Griffith want to learn about bacteria?

Frederick Griffith wanted to learn if bacterial transformation was possible.

Q5

How did the two types of bacteria used by Griffith differ?

Griffith used two strains of pneumococcus (Streptococcus pneumoniae) bacteria: a type

III-S and a type II-R.
Griffith Experiment: An Introduction
It may come as a surprise that less than a century ago, even the most educated members
of the scientific community were unaware that DNA was a hereditary material. Frederick
Griffith conducted a series of experiments with Streptococcus pneumonia bacteria and
mice in 1928 and concluded that the R-strain bacteria must have picked up a
"transforming principle" from the heat-killed S bacteria, allowing them to "transform"
into smooth-coated bacteria and become virulent.

In this article, we'll look at one of the classic experiments that led to the discovery of
DNA as a genetic information carrier.

Who was Frederick Griffith?

 The "Griffith's Experiment," carried out by English bacteriologist Frederick
Griffith in 1928, described the transformation of a non-pathogenic pneumococcal
bacteria into a virulent strain.
 Griffith combined living non-virulent bacteria with a heat-inactivated virulent
form in this experiment.
 He was the first to discover the "transforming principle," which led to the
discovery of DNA as a carrier of genetic information.
 He suggested that bacteria can transfer genetic information via a process known as
transformation.
 Griffith's goal was not to identify the genetic material but to create a vaccine
against pneumonia. In his experiments, Griffith used two related strains of bacteria
known as R and S.
 Griffith's work was expanded by Avery, MacLeod, and McCarty.

R Strain And S Strain Bacteria

 Streptococcus pneumonia comes in several types or strains. Griffith chose two
different strains for his experiment.
 One strain of bacteria has smooth surfaces and is known as the smooth strain (S
strain), while the other has rough surfaces and is known as the rough strain (R
strain).
 Bacteria of the S strain have smooth surfaces because they produce a
polysaccharide protective coating that forms the outermost layer.
 Apart from the morphological differences, Griffith discovered another significant
difference between the S and R strains of bacteria, i.e., the S strain is the "virulent"
strain capable of causing death in mice, whereas the R strain is the "nonvirulent"
strain that will not cause death in mice.
 Griffith observed that when he injected these bacteria into mice, the mice infected
with the virulent S strain died from pneumonia, whereas the mice infected with the
nonvirulent R strain survived.
 R Strain and S Strain of Streptococcus Pneumonia

Griffith’s Transformation Experiment

 Griffith was researching the possibility of developing a pneumonia vaccine.
 He used two strains of pneumococcus (Streptococcus pneumonia) bacteria that
infect mice – a virulent (causing disease) S (smooth) strain and a non-virulent type
R (rough) strain.
 The S strain produced a polysaccharide capsule that protected itself from the host's
immune system, resulting in the host's death, whereas the R strain lacked that
protective capsule and was defeated by the host's immune system.
 Griffith attempted to inject mice with heat-killed S bacteria as a part of his
research (i.e., S bacteria that had been heated to high temperatures, causing the
cells to die). The heat-killed S bacteria, but unsurprisingly, did not cause disease in
the mouse.
 When harmless R bacteria were combined with harmless heat-killed S bacteria and
injected into a mouse, the experiments took an unexpected turn.
 Not only did the mouse develop pneumonia and die, but Griffith discovered living
S bacteria in a blood sample taken from the dead mouse.
 He concluded that some factor or biomolecule from the heat-killed S bacteria had
entered the living R bacteria, allowing them to synthesise a polysaccharide coating
and become virulent. As a result, this factor "transformed" the R bacteria into S
bacteria.
 Griffith called this factor the "transforming principle," concluding that it carried
some genetic material from the S bacteria to the R bacteria.
 This process is now known as bacterial transformation and is used in a variety of
significant genetic engineering applications.
 Griffith Experiment Diagram

Impact of The Griffith Experiment

 One of the characteristics of hereditary material is a changing phenotype. Griffith
referred to the phenotypic-changing factor as the transforming principle.
 His work on the transforming principle received the most attention, but only after
a group of Canadian and American scientists set out to investigate the chemical
nature of the transforming principle in Oswald Avery's laboratory.
 Avery's group concluded in their studies that deoxyribonucleic acid was the
molecule identified by Griffith as the transforming principle after conducting
numerous experiments.
 The implications of this discovery are farfetched because it was made at a time
when scientists considered protein molecules to be genetic material.
 DNA, or deoxyribonucleic acid, is now recognised as the molecule that encodes
all cell functions and transmits genetic information from parent to offspring in
almost every living species.
 In the 1940s, however, DNA was thought to be a less qualified candidate for
genetic material. Avery and colleagues' research on Griffith's experiment provided
the first solid evidence that DNA could be the genetic material.

Conclusion
Griffith's ultimate goal was to find a way to cure pneumonia. Griffith inoculated mice
with various strains of pneumococci to see if they would infect and eventually kill the
mice. Griffith concluded that heat-killed virulent bacteria transformed living, non-
virulent bacteria into virulent bacteria. He performed his experiment on the two strains of
Streptococcus pneumonia, which differ from each other due to the presence of a
polysaccharide coat.

Griffith's findings were published in the Journal of Hygiene. In 1928, his experiments
with mice led to his major discovery of bacterial transformation. Griffith's experiment
discovered that bacteria can transfer genetic information through transformation.