[Notes on the biological interpretation of Fred Griffith's finding]
Number of Image Pages:
1 (62,306 Bytes)
Date:
1956
Creator:
Lederberg, Joshua
Source:
Periodical: Lederberg, Joshua. [Notes on the biological interpretation of Fred Griffith's finding]. American Scientist 44, 3 (1956):
268-269. Notes. 1 Image.
Publisher:
Sigma Xi, The Scientific Research Society
Rights:
Reproduced with permission of Sigma Xi, The Scientific Research Society.
Subject:
Medical Subject Headings (MeSH):
Transformation, Genetic
Exhibit Categories:
Shifting Focus: Early Work on Bacterial Transformation, 1928-1940
After the Discovery: The Transforming Principle's Reception by the Scientific Community
Relation:
Genetic Transduction (July 1956) (in The Joshua Lederberg Papers)
These spectacular discoveries in biochemistry ran far ahead of the genetic study of the pneumococcus transformation, which
relied on the capsule as a sole genetic marker. Until this study was broadened about 1951 with experiments on drug resistance
and other markers (8, 9), a variety of opinions were forwarded (mostly on a purely speculative level) on the biological interpretation
of Griffith's finding. They included the following versions of the transforming substance:
1. It was a specific mutagen with a special ability to direct a particular gene to mutate in a definite direction.
2. It was a polysaccharide autocatalyst (perhaps as a complex with DNA) that primed an enzymatic reaction for polysaccharide
synthesis.
3. It was a bacterial virus, which on infecting the bacteria provoked capsular synthesis as a host reaction.
4. It was an autonomous cytoplasmic gene or a morphogenetic inducer.
5. It might be acting at a distance without penetrating the bacterium.
6. It was a fragment of the genetic make-up of the bacterium, the only one to have been tested to that time.
7. It was an element sui generis for which no general conception should be adduced.
![[Notes on the biological interpretation of Fred Griffith's finding]](/ps/access/CCAAQX~.png)
Genetic Transduction (July 1956) (in The Joshua Lederberg Papers)