The Chemical Characterization of the Pneumococcal Transforming Principle

Abstract

The editors of Pathogens and Immunity are commemorating this month, the 80th anniversary of the publication of the landmark article by Oswald Avery, Colin MacLeod, and Maclyn McCarty in the Journal of Experimental Medicine on February 1, 1944 [1]. The study by Avery et al determined with extraordinary rigor the chemical nature of the so-called transforming principle inferred to exist by Frederick Griffith based on experiments he published in 1928.

Keywords

• DNA
• gene
• phenotype
• capsular polysaccharide
• virulence