Describe Frederick Griffith’s experiment on Streptococcus pneumoniae. Discuss the conclusion he arrived at.
Answers
Answer:
Frederick Griffiths experiment withStreptococcus pneumoniae (bacterium responsible for pneumonia), revealed the transforming principle of bacteria.
1. He observed two strains of this bacterium—one which formed smooth shiny colonies (S-type) with capsule, while other which formed rough colonies (R-type) without capsule.
2. When live S-type cells were injected into mice, they died due to pneumonia while when live R-type cells were injected into mice, they survived.
3. When heat-killed S-type cells were injected into mice, they survived and there were no symptoms of pneumonia observed.When, heat-killed S-type cells were mixed with live R-type cells and injected into mice, they died due to unexpected symptoms of pneumonia.
4. His experiments concluded that heat-killed S-type bacteria caused a transformation of the R-type bacteria into S-type bacteria although he was not able to understand the cause of this bacterial transformation.
Hope it helps..
✌