Molecular Basis of Inheritance — BIOLOGY STD 12 Science — Question

(1) Hershey and Chase worked with bacteriophages (viruses that infect bacteria and which are composed of DNA and protein coat).

(2) They cultured E. coli bacteria in medium containing radioactive phosphorus 32p. By infecting these bacteria with bacteriophages, Hershey and Chase could develop bacteriophages having DNA labelled with 32p. as DNA contains phosphorus and proteins do not.

(3) They also cultured E. coli bacteria in medium containing radioactive sulphur 35s. By infecting these bacteria with bacteriophages, they developed
bacteriophages whose protein coat was labelled with 35s, as proteins contain sulphur and DNA does not.
[Note : Viruses cannot be cultivated in medium.]

(4) Experiment involved three steps.

• Infection : Both the types of radioactive phages were allowed to infect E.coli bacteria grown on the medium containing normal ‘P‘ and ‘S’.
• Blending : Then bacterial cultures were agitated in blender to break contact between bacteria and parts of viruses that did not enter bacterial cells.
• Centrifugation : It was done to separate bacterial cells as a pellet. Parts of viruses which did not enter bacteria remained in the suspension.

(5) Observation:

• Radioactive ‘S’ remained in suspension.
• Only radioactive ‘P’ was found inside the bacterial cell in the pellet.

(6) Thus it was proved that DNA is the genetic material which enters bacterial cell and not protein.