What was the goal of the Hershey-Chase experiment?

Answer 1

- A series of experiments conducted in 1952 by Alfred Hershey and Martha Chase confirming that DNA was the genetic material in cells

- The experiment was conducted using T2 phage; a virus that infects bacteria. They do so by attaching to the surface of a bacterium and injecting its genetic material into the bacteria. The structure had recently been elucidated by electron microscopy.

- The 1st experiment- Phage DNA was labeled with radioactive 32P. Phosphorous is an important component of DNA which is not found in Amino Acids; protein building blocks.

- The phages were allowed to infect E.coli bacteria and through a series of elegant experiments they were able to observe transfer of labeled phage DNA into the cytoplasm of the bacteria.

- In the second experiment, they labeled phages with radioactive Sulfur 35 which is found in amino acids cysteine and Methionine. After infection of E.coli, they sheared off the phage protein shells from the infected cells using high speed blender and centrifugation to separate.

- After centrifugation, the radioactive sulfur was found in the protein portion confirming the hypothesis that the genetic information transferred was DNA and not protein