Question

For a science fair project, two students decided to repeat the Hershey and Chase experiment, with modifications. They decided to radioactively label the nitrogen of the DNA, rather than the phosphate. They reasoned that each nucleotide has only one phosphate and two to five nitrogen atoms. Thus, labeling the nitrogen atoms would provide a stronger signal than labeling the phosphates. Why won't this experiment work

Answer 1

amino acids in protein also have Nitrogen atoms, therefore it will be difficult for the radioactivity to differentiate between protein and DNA.

Explanation.

Possibly the students did not reasoned prior to the experimental set up that the targeted labeled atom in DNA,which is Nitrogen , is also one of the elements that forms the amino group of the , amino acids units of proteins. Therefore labeling this will create confusion in the results because the objective of the set up was to differentiate between DNA and protein.

However since nitrogen is common to the two, the radioactivity will not differentiate between the nitrogen of DNA and protein. Thus confusing results

Answer 2

Amino acids also have nitrogen atoms; hence, the radioactivity would not distinguish between DNA and proteins

Step-by-step explanation: