AP BIOLOGY

Detailed explanation-1: -Hershey and Chase, along with others who had done related experiments, confirmed that DNA was the biomolecule that carried genetic information. Before that, Oswald Avery, Colin MacLeod, and Maclyn McCarty had shown that DNA led to the transformation of one strain of Streptococcus pneumoniae to another.

Detailed explanation-2: -Groundbreaking experiments by Griffith, Avery, Hershey, and Chase disproved the notion that proteins were genetic material. In the first half of the twentieth century, Gregor Mendel’s principles of genetic inheritance became widely accepted, but the chemical nature of the hereditary material remained unknown.

Detailed explanation-3: -Hershey and Chase figured that the virus transferred genetic material into the bacterium to direct the production of more virus. They knew that bacteriophage T4 was made of protein and DNA. They also knew that proteins contain sulfur atoms but no phosphorus, while DNA contains a great deal of phosphorus and no sulfur.

Detailed explanation-4: -In a very simple experiment, Oswald Avery’s group showed that DNA was the “transforming principle.” When isolated from one strain of bacteria, DNA was able to transform another strain and confer characteristics onto that second strain. DNA was carrying hereditary information.

Detailed explanation-5: -Bacterial Viruses Hershey and Chase’s experiment with bacteriophages confirmed Avery’s results, convincing many scientists that DNA was the genetic material found in genes-not just in viruses and bacteria, but in all living cells.