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Griffith's Transformation Experiment (1928)

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Frederick Griffith showed in 1928 that a heat-killed pathogenic bacterial strain could transfer a heritable trait into a living harmless strain.

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Mice injected with live harmless bacteria plus heat-killed pathogenic bacteria died, and live pathogenic bacteria were recovered from them.

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Griffith identified a "transforming principle" existed — his experiment did not itself identify that principle as DNA.

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