Talk:Frederick Griffith

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During the early 1900s, the study of genetics began in earnest: the link between Mendel's work and that of cell biologists resulted in the chromosomal theory of inheritance; Garrod proposed the link between genes and "inborn errors of metabolism"; and the question was formed: what is a gene? The answer came from the study of a deadly infectious disease: pneumonia. During the 1920s Franklin Griffith studied the difference between a disease-causing strain of the pneumonia causing bacteria (Streptococcus peumoniae) and a strain that did not cause pneumonia. The pneumonia-causing strain (the S strain) was surrounded by a capsule. The other strain (the R strain) did not have a capsule and also did not cause pneumonia. Fredrick Griffith (1928) was able to induce a nonpathogenic strain of the bacterium Streptococcus pneumoniae to become pathogenic. Griffith referred to a transforming factor that caused the non-pathogenic bacteria to become pathogenic. Griffith injected the different strains of bacteria into mice. The S strain killed the mice; the R strain did not. He further noted that if heat killed S strain was injected into a mouse, it did not cause pneumonia. When he combined heat-killed S with Live R and injected the mixture into a mouse (remember neither alone will kill the mouse) that the mouse developed pneumonia and died. Bacteria recovered from the mouse had a capsule and killed other mice when injected into them!

Hypotheses: 1. The dead S strain had been reanimated/resurrected. 2. The Live R had been transformed into Live S by some "transforming factor". Further experiments led Griffith to conclude that number 2 was correct. In 1944, Oswald Avery, Colin MacLeod, and Maclyn McCarty revisited Griffith's experiment and concluded the transforming factor was DNA. Their evidence was strong but not totally conclusive. The then-current favorite for the hereditary material was protein; DNA was not considered by many scientists to be a strong candidate.

 He concluded that something in the dead virulent cells “transformed” the hereditary material of normally harmless bacteria so that they became killers.  it is the virus’s DNA—not protein—that enters the bacterium to cause infection. Their studies confirmed that DNA contained the virus’s genetic information, which triggered viral replication within the bacteria  This meant that genes existed as physical things which were preserved even after the organism died, and that this genetic material can be transferred from one organism to another while preserving its function.

[edit] Death

"He died holding a page that included formulas that seemed to be a breakthrough, however they were too random to be interpreted. Today the paper has remained in a preservation lab so that one day somebody can make sense of it and hopefully discover something that Griffith wasn't able to complete."

Is this true? I have not been able to find any mention of this elsewhere online, including MSN Encarta's article, and it was added by this user, whose only other contribution is narrative-style vandalism:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Contributions/71.214.220.246

69.140.47.53 23:53, 24 March 2007 (UTC)

I've read this elsewhere, but that doesn't make it true. I would not consider Encarta definitive, by the way. I agree with others that this entry should be cleaned up and combined with Frederick Griffith, though I'm not sure in what order. Eperotao 22:31, 14 April 2007 (UTC)

Deleted. Tim Vickers (talk) 18:36, 7 December 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Merge with Fred Griffith

Yes! They are the same person! Isoxyl 16:40, 7 May 2007 (UTC)

Indeed, Fred and Frederick Griffith are one and the same - 'Franklin' Griffith??? Fred/Frederick Griffith was born in 1877, not 1879 (source FreeBMD)--Bsx059 21:04, 14 July 2007 (UTC)

Emphatically yes. Having two biographies of the same person would create confusion.

Sorry, some vandal did a global search and replace Frederick for Franklin, which was kept somehow. But yes, once someone can merge these articles, please do! Isoxyl 22:03, 14 August 2007 (UTC)

These two biographies are the same biography under different names. This is confusing, they should be merged. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 65.106.79.226 (talk) 19:45, 11 September 2007 (UTC)

I think there's no question, but someone needs to do the work! Isoxyl 02:52, 7 November 2007 (UTC)

Done. Tim Vickers (talk) 18:36, 7 December 2007 (UTC)

Thanks, Tim. I didn't really look through it, but if there's anything from the old article that might be useful in this one, we should add it too. Isoxyl (talk) 18:59, 7 December 2007 (UTC)

That's been done, I merged some links and a bit of the introduction. Tim Vickers (talk) 19:31, 7 December 2007 (UTC)

Thanks! Isoxyl (talk) 01:10, 9 December 2007 (UTC)