MOLECULAR

GENETICS

THE CHEMICAL NATURE OF

THE GENE

© 2007 Paul Billiet ODWS

What does a gene do?
 The must be able to hold information and decode
it (translate it) into an organism as it grows and
develops
 It must be able to copy itself so that it can be
passed on to future generations

© 2007 Paul Billiet ODWS

What does a gene look like?
 It must be a big molecule
to hold the large amount of information required
to build an organism
 It must be a complex molecule
to provide the necessary variation to code the
instructions that control growth and development

© 2007 Paul Billiet ODWS

Four classes of molecules
which could form genes
Biological Elements Building Blocks
macromolecules
Polysaccharides CHO Monosaccharides
(carbohydrates)
Lipids CHO Fatty acids (and
(Fats, oils and waxes) glycerol)
Polypeptides CHONS Amino acids
(proteins)
Polynucleotides CHONP Nucleotides
(Nucleic acids)
© 2007 Paul Billiet ODWS
Griffiths (1928)
Tried to determine what
genetic material was
made of.

National Library of Medicine's Profiles in Science

© 2007 Paul Billiet ODWS
Griffiths’ Experiment
Pneumococcus bacteria on mice

2 STRAINS

S-type R-type
Smooth colonies Rough colonies
Virulent Avirulent

Innoculate into mice Innoculate into mice

Dead from pneumonia Not killed

© 2007 Paul Billiet ODWS
Griffiths’ Experiment
EXPERIMENT CONTROL CONTROL
Live R-type Live R-type only Heat-killed S-type
(harmless) only
+
Heat-killed S-type
Mice died from No mice died No mice died
pneumonia
Further test:
Cultured lung fluid
Live S-type found
© 2007 Paul Billiet ODWS
Conclusion
 Transformation of R-type to S-type
 Transformation was brought about by some heat
stable compound present in the dead S-type cells

Called the TRANSFORMING PRINCIPLE

© 2007 Paul Billiet ODWS

Avery, MacCleod & McCarthy
(1944)
Tried purifying the
transforming principle to
change R-type
Pneumococcus to S-type

National Library of Medicine's Profiles in

Science
© 2007 Paul Billiet ODWS
Results
The compound that had the most effect was:
 Colourless, viscous and heat stable
 It contains phosphorus
 It was not affected by trypsin (a protease) or amylase.
 It was inhibited by RNAase and DNAase

Conclusion
The transforming principle is a nucleic acid

© 2007 Paul Billiet ODWS

 Live R-type
+
Experiment DNA extracted and purified
from S-type bacteria

Mice died from

pneumonia

Live S-type bacteria cultured

from the lung fluid

These S-type bacteria remained

virulent for generation after
© 2007 Paul Billiet ODWS generation
Conclusion
DNA is the transforming principle and it is hereditary
material
Criticism
The DNA was not totally pure
It was contaminated by a small amount of protein
This protein could be the real transforming principle
BUT
When Avery and his team prepared purer extracts of DNA
they became better at transforming the bacteria types

© 2007 Paul Billiet ODWS