How does hershey and chase prove that dna is a genetic material - Biology - Evolution

Question

How does hershey and chase prove that dna is a genetic material

B Ashwini · Answer

The experiment began with the culturing of viruses in two types
of medium One set of viruses (A) was cultured in a medium of
radioactive phosphorus whereas another set (B) was cultured in a
medium of radioactive sulfur They observed that the first set of
viruses (A) consisted of radioactive DNA but not radioactive
proteins This is because DNA is a phosphorus-based compound while
protein is not The latter set of viruses (B) consisted of
radioactive protein but not radioactive DNA
The host for infection was E coli bacteria The viruses were
allowed to infect bacteria by removing the viral coats through a
number of blending and centrifugation
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Observation: E coli bacteria which were
infected by radioactive DNA viruses (A) were radioactive but the
ones that were infected by radioactive protein viruses (B) were
non-radioactive
Conclusion: Resultant radioactive and
non-radioactive bacteria infer that the viruses that had
radioactive DNA transferred their DNA to the bacteria but viruses
that had radioactive protein didn’t get transferred to the
bacteria Hence, DNA is the genetic material and not the protein