Question

Describe the Hershey and Chase experiment. Write the conclusion drawn by the scientists after their experiment.

Answer 1

The Hershey And Chase Experiment:

1. Hershey and Chase cultivated viruses inside a solution medium containing 32P radioactive phosphorus.
2. Then enabled them to infect E. coli while the mixture was stirred in a mixer.
3. Viral coats and bacterial cells containing viral particles were isolated using centrifugation.
4. The steps were repeated using radioactive sulfur 35S, where no radioactivity was found inside the bacterium.
5. Because S was never incorporated in Genome.
6. However, radioactivity was discovered in the supernatant with protein coats of viruses.

Conclusion:

1. They concluded that genetic information was DNA rather than proteins.
2. Since the protein coat stays outside of the host genome and only the DNA penetrates.
3. They discovered that hardly any protein, but only DNA, was accountable for their proliferation.
4. The DNA was responsible for all of the radioactive substances that managed to enter the cell.