Alfred Hershey & Martha Chase: DNA Discoveries
Alfred Hershey was born in Owosso, Michigan. He graduated from Michigan State in 1934 with a Ph.D. After his Ph.D., Hershey accepted a position at the Washington University School of Medicine in the Department of Bacteriology, where he started working on bacteriophage. In 1946, working with Max Delbruck, a fellow scientist, Hershey discovered that phage can recombine when co-infected into a bacterial host, which lead to research a new area of phage genetics. Martha Chase had just graduated from the College of Wooster in Ohio when she was hired as a research assistant by Hershey, who then accepted a position from the Carnegie Institution of Washington's Department of Genetics at Cold Spring Harbor where he and Martha Chase did the Hershey-Chase blender experiment that proved that phage DNA, and not protein, was the genetic material.
Hershey-Chase Experiment
The Hershey–Chase experiments were a series of experiments conducted in 1952 by Alfred Hershey and Martha Chase that helped to confirm that DNA is genetic material. Many …show more content…
When the bacteriophages infected the bacteria, the others contained the radioactive isotopes in their structures. This was performed once for the sulfur-labeled phages and for phosphorus-labeled phages. The phage coats remained on the outside of the bacteria, while genetic material entered. Disruption of phage from the bacteria by agitation in a blender followed by centrifugation allowed for the separation of the phage coats from the bacteria. “The offspring of the phages that were originally labeled with 32P remained labeled, while the offspring of the phages originally labeled with 35S were unlabeled”. This being said, the Hershey–Chase experiment helped confirm that DNA, not protein, is the genetic
Alfred Hershey was born in Owosso, Michigan. He graduated from Michigan State in 1934 with a Ph.D. After his Ph.D., Hershey accepted a position at the Washington University School of Medicine in the Department of Bacteriology, where he started working on bacteriophage. In 1946, working with Max Delbruck, a fellow scientist, Hershey discovered that phage can recombine when co-infected into a bacterial host, which lead to research a new area of phage genetics. Martha Chase had just graduated from the College of Wooster in Ohio when she was hired as a research assistant by Hershey, who then accepted a position from the Carnegie Institution of Washington's Department of Genetics at Cold Spring Harbor where he and Martha Chase did the Hershey-Chase blender experiment that proved that phage DNA, and not protein, was the genetic material.
Hershey-Chase Experiment
The Hershey–Chase experiments were a series of experiments conducted in 1952 by Alfred Hershey and Martha Chase that helped to confirm that DNA is genetic material. Many …show more content…
When the bacteriophages infected the bacteria, the others contained the radioactive isotopes in their structures. This was performed once for the sulfur-labeled phages and for phosphorus-labeled phages. The phage coats remained on the outside of the bacteria, while genetic material entered. Disruption of phage from the bacteria by agitation in a blender followed by centrifugation allowed for the separation of the phage coats from the bacteria. “The offspring of the phages that were originally labeled with 32P remained labeled, while the offspring of the phages originally labeled with 35S were unlabeled”. This being said, the Hershey–Chase experiment helped confirm that DNA, not protein, is the genetic