Whereas old dependency theory was Marxist in presentation, but nationalist in orientation, seeking to combine a theory of class struggle with a nationalist âthird worldistâ ideology, the new dependency theory is institutionalist in its analysis and political orientation.
Griffith concluded that the type II-R had been transformed into the lethal III-S strain by a transforming principle that was somehow part of the dead III-S strain bacteria. Today, we know that the transforming principle Griffith observed was the DNA of the III-s strain bacteria. While the bacteria had been killed, the DNA had survived the heating process and was taken up by the II-R strain bacteria. The III-S strain DNA contains the genes that form the protective polysaccharide capsule.
To test this idea, he did a series of experiments using the R and S strains. First, Griffith heated the S strain culture to kill the bacteria. As predicted, when injected into mice, the heat-killed bacteria did not produce an infection. Griffith co-injected the heat-killed S with live R into mice, and, much to his surprise, the mice developed pneumonia and died. Even more astonishing, Griffith was able to isolate live S strain from the blood of infected mice.