Question

Avery's experiments showed that bacteria are transformed by

Select one:
a. DNA.
b. proteins.
c. carbohydrates.
d. RNA.

Answer 1

Avery's experiments showed that bacteria are transformed by DNA. His team's research, along with Hershey and Chase's later work, were instrumental in establishing DNA as the carrier of genetic information.

Step-by-step explanation:

Avery's experiments demonstrated that bacteria are transformed by DNA. Oswald Avery, along with his colleagues Colin MacLeod and Maclyn McCarty, conducted research to identify the molecule responsible for hereditary traits in bacteria. They isolated the complex molecules from the S strain of bacteria and treated them with specific enzymes to degrade the components. Their experiments revealed that only when DNA was destroyed, the transformation of the R strain of bacteria did not occur, thus demonstrating that DNA was essential for transformation. This finding was further supported by the experiments of Martha Chase and Alfred Hershey, who used radioactive labeling to show that it was DNA, not proteins, that played the crucial role in genetic information transfer in bacteriophages.