READ: DNA, The Genetic Material

Avery’s Team Makes a Major Contribution

In the early 1940s, a team of scientists led by Oswald Avery tried to answer the question raised by Griffith’s results. They inactivated various substances in the S-strain bacteria. They then killed the S-strain bacteria and mixed the remains with live R-strain bacteria. (Keep in mind, the R-strain bacteria usually did not harm the mice.) When they inactivated proteins, the R-strain was deadly to the injected mice. This ruled out proteins as the genetic material. Why? Even without the S-strain proteins, the R strain was changed, or transformed, into the deadly strain. However, when the researchers inactivated DNA in the S strain, the R strain remained harmless. This led to the conclusion that DNA is the substance that controls the characteristics of organisms. In other words, DNA is the genetic material.