Summary of Griffeth’s and Avery/MacLeod/McCarthy experiments:

faculty.uca.edu/~johnc/mbi1440.htm
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Avery, MacLeod, McCarthy- basic idea –done almost 20 years after Griffeth’s experiment as a follow up to try and see what actually
caused them to transform from harmeless R to harmful S (they actually removed did a diff. experiment that removed the diff. types of
molecules one at a time but this is the same idea- for actual exp. Go to http://www.dnai.orgon the timeline for the 40’s)
The BIG picture
Hershey and Chase experiment
-this shows what they found outside the bacteria- in the supernatant compared to in the progeny(see the text for a simple illustration of
the exp. And go to the dnai.org site for the timeline and see the experiment animation.
Explanation (for above experiment)-see on next page
Illustration of the 1952 experiment connecting DNA and heredity.

Side by side experiments are performed with separate bacteriophage (virus) cultures in which
either the protein capsule is labeled with radioactive sulfur or the DNA core is labeled with
radioactive phosphorus.

1. The radioactively labeled phages are allowed to infect bacteria.

2. Agitation in a blender dislodges phage particles from bacterial cells.
3. Centrifugation concentrates cells, separating them from the phage particles left in the
supernatant.

Results:

1. Radioactive sulfur is found predominantly in the supernatant.

2. Radioactive phosphorus is found predominantly in the cell fraction, from which a new
generation of infective phage can be isolated.

Conclusion: The active component of the bacteriophage that transmits the infective characteristic
is the DNA. There is a clear correlation between DNA and genetic information.
DNA Replication(animation): how we make identical copies of DNA before dividing the cell. Note- this shows
only ½ of a replication bubble- see your notes diagram for a full one. There would multiple bubbles all along the
DNA and they would end up merging.
 a nucleotide
½ of a DNA molecule the BASES are adenine, thymine, cytosine, guanine
(and RNA has uracil instead thymine)
A complete DNA-notice the antiparallel sugars and the H bonding between the paired bases-always A with T and C with G.
Do you know what each symbol and letter stands for?? Quiz yourself and check you text or notes!
The right picture shows how it twists into a double helix.
A Nucleotide is outlined- how many in a row are needed to make a code? What does it code for? If this was the first nucleotide what
would be the code letters in a row? Quiz yourself and then go to the next page for the answer!
It takes 3 nulceotides to make a code and it codes for an amino acid. The code would be GGA.

mRNA-Transcription

more (with quiz)

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Shown with the RNA polymerase without the polymerase- it IS there, just not shown
Translation summarized- see text for details and the animation below.

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Translation animation
Do you now who these men are and what is so special about this picture?
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What is special about this image? What does it have to do with DNA?
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3
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Can you identify the mitosis phases indicated? Try and then go to the next page for the answers.
Mitosis figures answers to previous page: 1=anaphase 2=metaphase 3-prophase 4= interphase 5=late telophase

Review of the cell cycle- the “life stages” of a cell and the different names used for DNA as it goes through the stages.

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