Question

State whether true or false:

Hershey and Chase observed after centrifugation of the radiolabelled culture media that, most of the phosphorus was found in the pellet, while sulphur was found in the supernatant.

• A. True
• B. False

Answer 1

The correct option is A True

During centrifugation, the heavier stuff usually settles at the bottom of the tube as ‘pellet’ and the lighter stuff stays on top to form the ‘supernatant’. In Hershey and Chase’s experiment, radiolabelled phosphorus and sulphur had been taken up by the phages’ DNA and protein coat respectively, and they had then infected bacteria. This mixture was centrifuged, and it was observed that the tube containing radioactive phosphorus had most of the radioactive phosphorus settled at the bottom as pellet, while the tube containing radioactive sulphur had most of the radioactive sulphur on top as supernatant.