Question

If Avery, MacLeod, and McCarty had determined that the transforming molecule was a protein, what experimental results would not have been observed?

a. heat-killed cultures treated with RNase would transform the R cells
b. heat-killed cultures treated with protease would transform the R cells
c. heat-killed cultures treated with DNase would transform the R cells
d. heat-killed cultures treated with protease would not transform the R cells

Answer 1

The experimental result that heat-killed cultures treated with protease would transform the R cells would not have been observed if the transforming molecule had been a protein.

Step-by-step explanation:

If Avery, MacLeod, and McCarty had determined that the transforming molecule was a protein, the experimental result that would not have been observed is that heat-killed cultures treated with protease would transform the R cells. In their original experiment, they found that when they treated the heat-killed S strain bacterial extracts with DNase, which degrades DNA, the ability to transform R strain bacteria was lost. This was due to DNA being the transforming principle. To answer the student's original question: if the transforming molecule had been a protein, then treatment with protease, which degrades proteins, would have prevented the transformation of R cells. Thus, option c. would not be an accurate observation since treatment with DNase would not affect the transformation if proteins were the transformative agent.