Student Page 2.1: Proteins, DNA, and RNA 1.

During the 1940s when Avery was performing his experiments on the chemical nature of the gene, scientists knew that inside the cell there were three different types of molecules that had some role to play in heredity. !cientists reasoned that "ecause organisms display many different traits, the heredity molecule must "e a"le to encode a great deal of information. A polymer is a large molecule that is made up of many su"units called monomers. $he type of monomers used to make the polymer determine to which class of molecules the polymer "elongs. Type of Macromolecule A Protein ' DNA !aracteristics Polymer made of 0 different monomers %any different shapes and si&es Polymer made of 4 different monomers Dou"le stranded molecule Polymer made of 4 different monomers !ingle stranded molecule

. #.

( RNA

'ased solely on the information a"ove, which type of polymer do you think is the "est candidate for "eing the hereditary molecule) *rite your answer in the space "elow. 'e sure to explain your reasoning.

Student Page 2.2: "irst A#ery $%periment +xtracts from heat,killed ! strain "acteria were prepared that contained purified D-A, .-A, and protein. +ach extract was separately added to living . strain "acteria and incu"ated overnight. $he next day, each sample of . strain "acteria was o"served to see if it had "een transformed "y the extract into the ! strain.

Predicted $%perimental Results: /f 0000000000000000 were the hereditary molecule, / would expect to see... Type of $%tract D-A .-A 1rotein Transformation &'ser#ed (yes or no)

A#ery*s Actual $%perimental Results Type of $%tract D-A .-A 1rotein Transformation &'ser#ed (yes or no)

Avery2s results provide evidence that 0000000000000000 is the hereditary molecule.

Student Page 2.+: Second A#ery $%periment Avery took the D-A extract from the first experiment that transformed the . strain into the ! strain and treated portions of it with different en&ymes as follows3 D-Ase3 destroys D-A in the extract .-Ase3 destroys .-A in the extract 1rotease3 destroys proteins in the extract After allowing the en&ymes to do their work, each extract was separately added to living . strain "acteria and incu"ated overnight. As in the first experiment. $he next day, each sample of . strain "acteria was o"served to see if it had "een transformed "y the extract into the ! strain.

Predicted $%perimental Results: /f D-A were the hereditary molecule, / would expect to see... $%tract D-A D-A D-A $%tract Treatment D-Ase .-Ase 1rotease Transformation &'ser#ed (yes or no)

A#ery*s Actual $%perimental Results: $%tract D-A D-A D-A $%tract Treatment D-Ase .-Ase 1rotease Transformation &'ser#ed (yes or no)

E: Explain why proteins were once thought to be the most likely polymers to encode hereditary information. A: How did Avery use enzymes to identify the transforming agent? : !nowing that "#A is the hereditary material$ what %uestion do you think scientists wanted to answer next? &: Avery's first experiment showed that a "#A extract from heat(killed & strain could transform ) strain into & strain. &ome scientists argued that this result may have been due to protein contaminating the "#A extract. *f they were correct$ then how would Avery's second experiment have turned out?