You are trying to reproduce the Hershey-Chase experiment. Unfortunately you have

Question

You are trying to reproduce the Hershey-Chase experiment. Unfortunately you

have run out 32P, so you use 13N (which is radioactive) in place of 32P. Otherwise

you reproduce all of their steps. Experiment A utilizes 13N-labelled bacteriophage

and experiment B uses 35S labeled bacteriophage. What will you observe?

I) Bacterial cells in Experiment A will contain 13N

II) Aqueous supernatant in Experiment A will contain 13N

III) Bacterial cells in Experiment B contain 35S

IV) Aqueous supernatant in Experiment B will contain 35S

A. I and IV only B. II and III only C. I, III and IV only

D. I, II and IV only E. None of the above

Explanation / Answer

E. None of the above

32P is used for this experiment because phosphorous is present only in DNA and not in proteins. Replacing it with 13N will not give the same results as there will be differences during centrifugation. Supernatant will contain both 13N and 35S.

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