Transformation in bacteria was first demonstrated in 1928 by British bacteriologist Frederick Griffith. Griffith discovered that a strain of Streptococcus pneumoniae could be made virulent after being exposed to heat - killed virulent strains. Griffith hypothesized that some "transforming principle '' from the heat - killed strain was responsible for making the harmless strain virulent. In 1944 this "transforming principle '' was identified as being genetic by Oswald Avery, Colin MacLeod, and Maclyn McCarty. They isolated DNA from a virulent strain of S. pneumoniae and using just this DNA were able to make a harmless strain virulent. They called this uptake and incorporation of DNA by bacteria "transformation '' (See Avery - MacLeod - McCarty experiment). The results of Avery et al. 's experiments were at first skeptically received by the scientific community and it was not until the development of genetic markers and the discovery of other methods of genetic transfer (conjugation in 1947 and transduction in 1953) by Joshua Lederberg that Avery 's experiments were accepted.
who discovered that dna can be transferred from one bacterium to another
British bacteriologist Frederick Griffith