History of genetics of the fruit fly "Drosophila melanogaster". In 1928, Frederick Griffith showed that genes could be transferred. In what is now known as Griffith's experiment, injections into a mouse of a deadly strain of bacteria that had been heat-killed transferred genetic information to a safe strain of the same bacteria, killing the mouse. A series of subsequent discoveries led to the realization decades later that the genetic material is made of DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid). In 1941, George Wells Beadle and Edward Lawrie Tatum showed that mutations in genes caused errors in specific steps in metabolic pathways. This showed that specific genes
Carboxylic acid the electron-withdrawing effect of the carbonyl bond, which makes the terminal oxygen-hydrogen bond weaker and thus makes acid dissociation more favorable (lowers pKa). Carboxylic acids can be seen as reduced or alkylated forms of the Lewis acid carbon dioxide; under some circumstances they can be decarboxylated to yield carbon dioxide. Carboxylic acids are commonly identified using their trivial names, and usually have the suffix "-ic acid". IUPAC-recommended names also exist; in this system, carboxylic acids have an "-oic acid" suffix. For example, butyric acid (CHCOH) is butanoic acid by IUPAC guidelines. The "-oic acid" nomenclature detail is based on the