Target Exam

CUET

Subject

Biology

Chapter

Molecular Basis of Inheritance

Question:

Arrange the following events of Meselson and Stahl's experiment in order of their occurence:

A. DNA extracted from the culture, twenty minutes after transfer from ${}^{15}N$ to ${}^{14}N$ medium had a hybrid density.
B. E. Coli with heavy DNA were transferred into a medium with ${}^{14}NH_4CI$.
C. E. Coli were grown in a medium containing ${}^{15}NH_4CI$.
D. DNA extracted from the culture after forty minutes had equal amounts of hybrid DNA and light DNA.

Choose the correct answer from the options given below:

Options:

A, B, C, D

D, C, A, B

B, A, D, C

C, B, A, D

Correct Answer:

C, B, A, D

Explanation:

The correct answer is Option (4) → C, B, A, D

C. E. Coli were grown in a medium containing ${}^{15}NH_4Cl$.

B. E. Coli with heavy DNA were transferred into a medium with ${}^{14}NH_4Cl$.

A. DNA extracted from the culture, twenty minutes after transfer from ${}^{15}N$ to ${}^{14}N$ medium had a hybrid density.


D. DNA extracted from the culture after forty minutes had equal amounts of hybrid DNA and light DNA.

 

It is now proven that DNA replicates semiconservatively. It was shown first in Escherichia coli and subsequently in higher organisms, such as plants and human cells. Matthew Meselson and Franklin Stahl performed the following experiment in 1958:

(i) They grew E. coli in a medium containing 15NH4Cl (15N is the heavy isotope of nitrogen) as the only nitrogen source for many generations. The result was that 15N was incorporated into newly synthesised DNA (as well as other nitrogen containing compounds). This heavy DNA molecule could be distinguished from the normal DNA by centrifugation in a cesium chloride (CsCl) density gradient (Please note that 15N is not a radioactive isotope, and it can be separated from 14N only based on densities).

(ii) Then they transferred the cells into a medium with normal 14NH4Cl and took samples at various definite time intervals as the cells multiplied, and extracted the DNA that remained as double-stranded helices. The various samples were separated independently on CsCl gradients to measure the densities of DNA

(iii) Thus, the DNA that was extracted from the culture one generation after the transfer from 15N to 14N medium [that is after 20 minutes; E. coli divides in 20 minutes] had a hybrid or intermediate density. DNA extracted from the culture after another generation [that is after 40 minutes, II generation] was composed of equal amounts of this hybrid DNA and of ‘light’ DNA