Avery, MacLeod and McCarty provided crucial experimental evidence that DNA was the transforming principle, bringing heredity into the domain of analysable chemical material.
Three 1953 Nature papers supplied a structural model and essential experimental evidence. An accurate history recognizes the contributions of Watson, Crick, Franklin, Gosling, Wilkins, Stokes and Wilson.
The structural model became powerful because it connected chemical composition, diffraction evidence and testable questions about replication.
Studies on the Chemical Nature of the Substance Inducing Transformation of Pneumococcal Types ↗
Molecular Structure of Nucleic Acids: A Structure for Deoxyribose Nucleic Acid ↗