who discovered that nucleic acids are responsible for the transmission o the genetic inormation

Question

anonymous · Answer

That would be Hershey and Chase.

anonymous · Answer

Frederick Griffith performed an important experiment as did Oswald Avery. Both led to the discovery by Hershey and Chase of DNA as heritable material

kayne · Answer

Hi @zarah0426! Welcome to OpenStudy!

Well, that's a very interesting question which actually nurtures a very interesting story.  In the late 1920s, there was a British scientist named Frederick Griffith who accidentally came across the idea that cells contain an element which transmit information which he thought was proteins. Oswald Avery and company took over Griffith's work and tried to discover what was the hereditary material. They did postulate that it could be the DNA but the critics they received were that it was plausible that some proteins (< !%) could account for the heredity. It was finally Hershay and Chase who convinced the scientific world that it was nucleic acids the one responsible for the transmission of information.

Well, why scientists thought that protein could be the hereditary material? It's because it's complex and really an intriguing molecule to decipher while nucleic acids seemed boring to them - just four different bases! "Ha! Very unlikely", they must have thought. Read more about it online. Amazing story indeed!