Frederick Griffith (* 1877 in resound to Cheshire; "† 1941 in London) were a British physician and bacteriologist.

Admits became Griffith by an experiment (1928) with Pneumokokken, with which he proved the admission of a genetic factor by a trunk of Pneumokokken: Griffith worked with two trunks, a R and a S-trunk. Here "s" stands for "smooth" (smoothly), since they are able Schleimkapseln to form and "r" for "rough" (rau), because they lost their hereditary ability for cap formation. In a bioassay the S-trunk for mice proved as deadly, the R-trunk as harmless. If one killed the bacteria in the deadly S-trunk and if it injected the mouse, the animal did not take damage. If one injected it however a mixture from living R-bacteria and killed S-bacteria, then they died. The before harmless R-Pneumokokken had taken over the deadly factor of the S-trunk.

Today one knows that the DNA of the S-bacteria had survived the heating process and thus by the R-Pneumokokken be taken up could. The DNA of the S-trunk contained the crucial gene, which protected against the immune system of the landlord. Griffith described like that as one first a possibility of the details exchange between bacteriatoday is well-known this procedure as transformation.

See also: Oswald Avery

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