Hershey and Chase

What did Hershey and Chase seek to address?

Is hereditary material:

* DNA?
* Protein?
* Other?

They wanted to confirm the discovery of avery, mccarthy, and macleod

What organism that Hershey and Chase observe and experiment with?

Bacteriophage

* a virus that infects bacteria

What are the two important parts of bacteriophage?

1. Protein coat
2. DNA core

Why was radioactive sulfer and radioactive phosphorate used as markers?

Sulfer is only found in proteins

Phosphate is only found in DNA

* would allow them to see which enters the cell

Describe Hershey and Chase’s experiment and set up.

* Protein labeled bacteriophage + bacteria = most of the radioactivity remained with the virus
* Protein wasn’t in herited
* Phosphate labeled bacteriophage + bacteria = most of the radioactive DNA was injected into the bacteria
* DNA is inherited

What was Hershey and Chases’s conclusion?

DNA has “some function” in bacterial multiplication