BIO 311C Lecture Notes - Lecture 15: Maclyn Mccarty, Friedrich Miescher, Maurice Wilkins
Document Summary
1869 friedrich miescher discovers nuclein in necrotic cells from open wounds decomposing cells composed mostly of nuclear material. 1874 miescher found that nuclein consisted of protein and an acid molecule - nuclein then became known as nucleic acid. Morgan"s work show mendel"s heritable factors located on chromosomes. 1920snucleic acid found to be a major component of chromosomes. 1930schemical nature of nuclei acid was thought to be a tetranucleotide composed of one unit each of adenylic, guanylic, thymidylic and cytidylic acids. Suspects: protein or dna, protein favored cause it was complex. In 1944, oswald avery, maclyn mccarty, and colin macleod announced that the transforming substance was dna. Their conclusion was based on experimental evidence that harmless bacteria would. Harmless bacteria would transform into pathogenic bacteria if only proteins were destroyed and dna was not destroyed. Many biologists still skeptical, because little was known about dna. Convincing evidence for dna as the genetic material came from work by hershey and.
