Introduction To Genetics History

Question 1

What did Frederick Griffith begin to discover?

Answer 1

The genetic role of DNA

Question 2

Materials used in Frederick Griffith’s lab

Answer 2

• 2 strains of bacterium, one pathogenic, one harmless
• Mouses
• Needle (inject the mouses with the bacteria)

Question 3

What unusual thing occurred in Griffith’s lab?

Answer 3

When he mixed heat-killed remains of the pathogenic strain with living cells of the harmless strain, some living cells became pathogenic

Question 4

What did Griffith call the phenomenon that occurred during the lab?

Answer 4

• Transformation
• Called DNA the transforming principle

Question 5

What is this phenomenon defined as today?

Answer 5

A change in genotype and phenotype due to assimilation of foreign DNA

Question 6

What did Alfred Hershey and Martha Chase conclude?

Answer 6

The injected DNA of the phage provides the genetic information

Question 7

Alfred Hershey and Martha Chase experiment

Answer 7

• They injected radioactive sulfur into the protein coat of a phage and saw it did not enter the bacteria
• When they injected radioactive phosphurs into the DNA of the phage it did enter the bacteria

Question 8

Rosaline Franklin major contributions

Answer 8

• Used X-ray diffraction images which gave initial indications of DNA structure

Question 9

Sad part about Rosaline Franklin

Answer 9

• Her work was initially never acknowledged
• Watson and Crick used it to finalize the structure of DNA

Question 10

What is the transforming principle?

Answer 10

Something is important and is shared between dead pathogenic bacteria and living harmless bacteria