The
Discovery of the "Transforming
Principle"
Avery’s key discovery was that the transforming
substance, which produced
permanent, heritable change in an organism (pneumococci), was deoxyribonucleic acid.
The phenomenon of transformation, Avery
wrote, "has been interpreted from a genetic point of view. The
inducing substance has been
likened to a gene, and the capsular antigen which is produced in response to it has been regarded as a gene product." ….
”…If
the results of the present study on the chemical nature of the transforming principle are confirmed, then nucleic
acids must be regarded
as possessing biological specificity...."
Journal of Experimental Medicine, 1944