Hershey-Chase experiment definition - medical term
An extraordinarily important experiment in 1952
that helped to convince the world that DNA was the genetic material. Alfred Hershey
(1908-1997) and his assistant Martha Chase (1923-2003) at the Cold Spring Harbor
Laboratory showed that the DNA, not the protein, of the phage virus contains the
phage genes. After a phage particle attaches to a bacterium, its DNA enters through
a tiny hole while its protein coat remains outside. Key to the success of the experiment
was showing that viral infection was unaffected by violent agitation in a kitchen
blender (a Waring Blendor) which removed the empty viral protein shells from the
bacterial surface. The Hershey-Chase experiment became known as the "blender experiment."
A lfred D. Hershey won a Nobel Prize for his insights into the nature of viruses
in 1969, along with Max Delbrück and Salvador Luria. In a 1997 memoriam to Hersey,
James Watson wrote that "the Hershey-Chase experiment had a much broader impact
than most confirmatory announcements and made me ever more certain that finding
the three-dimensional structure of DNA was biology's next important objective. The
finding of the double helix by Francis Crick and me came only 11 months after my
receipt of a long Hershey letter describing his blender experiment results."
medical
dictionary, online medical dictionary, medical
terminology dictionary, free online medical
dictionary, medical dictionary, online medical
dictionary, medical terminology dictionary, free
online medical dictionary, dictionary medical,
dictionary medical online, dictionary medical
terminology, dictionary free medical online,
dictionary free medical, dictionary medical
terms, dictionary drug medical medicine,
dictionary health illustrated medical nursing
profession stedmans, dictionary English medical,
dictionary medical online terminology,
dictionary encyclopedia medical online,
condition dictionary medical, dictionary
medical, dictionary drug medical, medical
dictionary software, cyclopedic dictionary index
medical tabers thumb, medical dictionary, online
medical dictionary, medical terminology
dictionary
