Webquest: The History of the Discovery of DNA Period: C

Name: Anina Mu Date: 3/29/12

Directions: Complete the following webquest. If any of the links are broken, find another source and include the web address of your new source at the beginning of your answer. What carried genetic information DNA or protein? 1. Friedrich (Fritz) Miescher http://www.dnai.org/timeline/index.html - Find Miescher on the timeline and click on the bucket with the Red Cross to watch the animation. In 1869, he extracted a substance from white blood cells that he called nuclein. What do you think he was actually extracting? DNA

2. Frederick Griffith

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xfxrwg_griffith-s-expeiment_tech

Frederick Griffiths famous experiment was conducted in 1928. In his experiment, pneumococcus smooth virulent bacteria plus live rough non-virulent bacteria killed mice. His experiment demonstrated that DNA was the transforming material. Griffiths Famous Experiment: Transformation

Summarize his experiment here: When the virulent strain was injected into the mouse, it died immediately. The nonvirulent bacteria was harmless to the mouse. When the virulent strain was heated, it was also harmless. However, when the heated virulent strain was mixed with the non-virulent strain, it killed the mouse.

Oswald Avery

http://www.dnaftb.org/17/animation.html

In 1944, what did he and his colleagues discover that DNA is responsible for? DNA was the transforming factor. http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Structural_Biochemistry/Nucleic_Acid/DNA/AveryMacLeod-McCarty_Experiment Briefly describe his experiment. A mouse was injected with both dead smooth and live rough bacteria, and it died. Samples were taken from the mice, and it was revealed that smooth deadly bacteria had grown. It was concluded that DNA was the genetic material because the rough bacteria had become smooth bacteria.

3. Alfred Hershey and Martha Chase a. Hersey-Chase Animation In 1952, their experiments showed that DNA is the genetic material instead of protein.
b.

c.

Summarize their experiment here: In this experiment, phages were used. Phages are DNA wrapped in a protein coat. First, the radioactive phages were attached to a bacterial cell where they inserted their DNA, but the phages produced in the bacteria were not radioactive. The cell was then shaken, causing the protein coat to come off. Next, phages labeled as DNA were injected into a bacterial cell. The cell was shaken, and the cell produced for DNA phages.

What is the structure of DNA? 2. Erwin Chargaff http://www.dnai.org/timeline/index.html Watch Chargaffs Ratios. Chargaff used relative proportions of bases in DNA to come up with his rules for base pairing. What are four sources of DNA that he used? Adenine, Thymine, Cytosine, and Guanine. discovered Chargoffs ratios

http://fig.cox.miami.edu/~cmallery/150/gene/chargaff.htm Adenine (A) pairs with Thymine Guanine (G) pairs with Cytosine The bases that are purines include Adenine & Thymine. The bases that are pyrimidines include Cytosine & Guanine.
3. Rosalind Franklin.

http://www.dnai.org/timeline/index.html - Watch Franklins X-ray diffraction pattern What is X-ray crystallography (a.k.a. X-ray diffraction)? A stream of X-rays targets an object that is crystallized, taking a photograph.

What did she discover about the shape of DNA? There are two distinct diffraction patterns and its 3D.

4. Maurice Wilkins

http://www.nzedge.com/heroes/wilkins.html His research, with the help from Rosalind Franklin, led to the discovery of the DNA molecule structure. This discovery was made by American biologist, James Watson, and British physicist, Francis Crick. 5. Linus Pauling http://www.dnai.org/timeline/index.html - Watch the animation. Linus Pauling proposed a structure for DNA that was incorrect. Describe and draw it below: He thought DNA was triple stranded and the phosphate faced in and the nitrogenous bases faced out. He also made all the oxygen molecules positive, so it would have been impossible for them to bond.

6. James Watson and Francis Crick.

http://www.dnai.org/timeline/index.html a. What did they receive the Nobel Prize for in 1962? Physiology or Medicine

b. What is the difference between Paulings structure and the actual structure of DNA? Pauling believed there was a triple helix, while Watson and Crick discovered that it was actually a double helix.

Extra Credit: http://nobelprize.org/educational_games/medicine/dna_double_helix/ Play the game and record what three organisms you had: 1. house mouse 2. mycobacterium tuberculosis 3. fruit fly