Phosphorous 32 was used to label the Nucleic Acid. Sulfur 35 was used to label the protein. The progeny of the E. coli cells Hershey and Chase grew the virus in had Phosphorous 32 in them which concluded that the DNA went inside and was the genetic material. The phage coating left on the outside tested positive for Sulfur 35 which meant protein was left on the outside.
Phosphorus-32 is the radioactive isotope that undergoes beta decay to produce sulfur-32. During beta decay, a neutron in the nucleus of phosphorus-32 is converted into a proton and an electron, resulting in the formation of sulfur-32.
Elements
Sulfur has a higher melting point than phosphorus because sulfur atoms are bonded together by stronger covalent bonds compared to phosphorus atoms. The higher bond strength in sulfur molecules requires more energy to break the bonds and melt the substance, resulting in a higher melting point.
Sulfur appears directly below phosphorus in the periodic table.
Phosphorus is more reactive than sulfur due to its higher electronegativity and smaller atomic size, which allows it to readily form bonds with other elements. Phosphorus reacts vigorously with oxygen and water, whereas sulfur is less reactive and requires more energy to form compounds.
Phosphorus-32 is the radioactive isotope that undergoes beta decay to produce sulfur-32. During beta decay, a neutron in the nucleus of phosphorus-32 is converted into a proton and an electron, resulting in the formation of sulfur-32.
Hershey and Chase used radioactive Sulfur to label viral proteins, as proteins contain sulfur. By growing the viruses in a culture containing both radioactive Sulfur and Phosphorus, they could differentiate between viral proteins (labeled with Sulfur) and viral DNA (labeled with Phosphorus). If they had only used one radioactive substance, they would not have been able to determine the specific molecule (protein or DNA) that the virus injected into the host cell.
Hershey and Chase used radioactive sulfur-35 to tag phage proteins and radioactive phosphorus-32 to tag phage DNA in their experiments on bacteriophages.
Phosphorus and sulfur can form a covalent bond when they share electrons. This type of bond is known as a phosphorus-sulfur covalent bond.
A box of phosphorus and sulfur is commonly referred to as a matchbox.
The first ionization energy of phosphorus is greater than that of sulfur because phosphorus has a smaller atomic size compared to sulfur. This results in a stronger attraction between the electron and the nucleus in phosphorus, making it more difficult to remove an electron from phosphorus compared to sulfur. Additionally, the electron configuration of sulfur (with a half-filled p orbital) provides more stability, making it easier to remove an electron from sulfur than from phosphorus.
The idea of their experiment was to determine what kind of macromolecule was the genetic material, DNA or proteins. Bacteriophages, viruses that infect bacteria, were known to carry all of the information needed to make themselves, but using the genetic machinery of their hosts. Based on this, they were used as a simple system that should be governed by the same principals as the genetic information of the bacteria itself. At the time it was known that nearly all phosphorus in macromolecules is found in nucleic acid, and nearly all sulfur is found in proteins (methionine and cycteine). So if you grow cells in radioactive isotopes of phosphorus, the nucleic acids (e.g. DNA) become radioactive, and if you grow cells in radioactive sulfur, proteins become radioactive. Sorry, there's more. Folks studying infection of bacteria by phage found that most of the virus was a "package" that never entered the cell. So if they mixed phage with bacteria and waited 15 minutes and then put the mix in a blender for a few seconds, the packages that had been attached to the outside of the bacteria get ripped off and can be searated from the bacteria. While the packages are no longer attached to the bacteria, the bacteria are already infected, so the virus genes must already be inside. Now the experiment: Hershey and Chase infected bacteria with phage with racdioactive proteins (sulfur) or in a separate experiment radioactive DNA (phosphorus). The bacteria was mixed with virus for 15 minutes, then whoosh, frappe! They then separated the bacteria from the viruses that had not infected bacteria and empty packages, and asked what kind of radioactive macromoleules were able to get inside the bacteria following the short incubation. In the sulfur experiment , the bacteria were NOT radioactive so proteins appeared to not enter the bacteria during this short time frame. In the phosphorus experiment, the bacteria became radioactive after a short incubation, meaning the DNA of the phage had entered the bacteria in the same time frame as the genetic material. This was consistent with DNA being the genetic material of bacteriophage.
The compound P4S5 is called phosphorus pentasulfide.
Hershey and Chase attached radioactive sulfur to proteins in the bacteriophage's outer coat in one experiment, and to DNA in another experiment, to determine which molecule was injected into the host bacteria during viral infection. They found that only DNA, not proteins, was passed on to the host bacterium. This confirmed that DNA is the genetic material responsible for heredity.
Sulfur is less reactive than phosphorus. Phosphorus is more likely to form compounds with other elements due to its higher reactivity.
Elements
Ordinary sulfur found in nature is stable, but there are synthetic isotopes of all elements, including sulfur.