Hershey, Delbruck, and Luria began exchanging information on phage research in the early 1940s. In 1945 Hershey and Luria, working independently, demonstrated the occurrence of spontaneous mutation in both the bacteriophages and the host. The next year, Hershey and Delbruck independently discovered the occurrence of genetic recombination in phages--i.e., that different strains of phages inhabiting the same bacterial cell can exchange or combine genetic material. Delbruck incorrectly interpreted his results as specifically induced mutations, but Hershey and one of his students proved that the results they had obtained were recombinations by showing that the genetic processes in question correspond with the crossing-over of parts of similar chromosomes observed in cells of higher organisms. Hershey is most noted for the so-called blender experiment that he
performed with Martha Chase in 1952. By showing that phage DNA is the
principal component entering the host cell during infection, Hershey
proved that DNA, rather than protein, is the genetic material of the
phage.
|
Main Page | About Us | All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License. Timeline of Nobel Prize Winners is not affiliated with The Nobel Foundation. External sites are not endorsed or supported by http://www.nobel-winners.com/ Copyright © 2003 All Rights Reserved. |