Hershey–Chase experiment

The Hershey–Chase experiments were a series of <a href="/facts/Experiment/esltM54f">experiments</a> conducted in 1952 by <a href="/facts/Alfred_Hershey/lAEvkfBe">Alfred Hershey</a> and <a href="/facts/Martha_Chase/DxNpGKp8">Martha Chase</a> that helped to confirm that <a href="/facts/DNA/nB89Iauz">DNA</a> is <a href="/facts/Genetic_material/2tTgcI0v">genetic material</a>.

While DNA had been known to <a href="/facts/Biologist/yJJGXyKR">biologists</a> since 1869, many scientists still assumed at the time that <a href="/facts/Protein/Jxmagu3E">proteins</a> carried the information for inheritance because DNA appeared to be an inert molecule, and, since it is located in the nucleus, its role was considered to be phosphorus storage. In their experiments, Hershey and Chase showed that when <a href="/facts/Bacteriophage/L2Ll0T3q">bacteriophages</a>, which are composed of DNA and protein, infect bacteria, their DNA enters the host bacterial cell, but most of their protein does not. Hershey and Chase and subsequent discoveries all served to prove that DNA is the hereditary material.
Hershey shared the 1969 <a href="/facts/Nobel_Prize_in_Physiology_or_Medicine/rlnpJX84">Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine</a> with <a href="/facts/Max_Delbr%25C3%25BCck/HDJ29RAX">Max Delbrück</a> and <a href="/facts/Salvador_Luria/v9z5Cbkg">Salvador Luria</a> for their "discoveries concerning the genetic structure of viruses".

Hershey–Chase experiment open-in-new

Hershey–Chase experiment