The DNA as genetic material

Avery-McLeod-McCarty experiment
The AveryMacLeodMcCarty experiment was an experimental demonstration that
proved that DNA is the substance that carried the inheritable genetic message for
virulence in an era when it had been widely believed that it was proteins that served the
function of carrying genetic information. The investigators made this experiment:
1)Injected a mouse with a nonencapsulated strain and
the mouse lives.
2) Injected the mouse with an encapsulated strain of
lethal pneumococcus and the mouse dies.
3) They killed the encapsulated strain by heat making it
harmless so muse lives
4) Avery and his colleagues extracted the DNA from
heat-killed virulent pneumococci, removing the protein as
completely as possible, and added the DNA to
nonvirulent bacteria. The DNA gained entrance into the
nonvirulent bacteria, which were permanently
transformed into a virulent strain and the mouse dies.

So Avery and his colleagues concluded that the DNA extracted from the virulent strain
carried the inheritable genetic message for virulence instead of proteins but not
everyone accepted these conclusions, because they said some protein impurities could
be present in the DNA and carrier of the genetic information but this possibility was
eliminated by the finding that treatment of the DNA with proteolytic enzymes did not
destroy the transforming activity, but treatment with deoxyribonucleases did.
Hershey-Chase experiment
The Hershey-Chase experiment helped to confirm that DNA is genetic material.
They knew that viruses were composed of a protein shell and DNA, so they chose to
uniquely label each with a different elemental isotope. They prepared two batches of
isotopically labeled bacteriophage T2. One was labeled with 32P in the phosphate
groups of the DNA, the other with 35S in the sulfur-containing amino acids of the
protein coats (capsids), they did it because DNA contains no sulfur and viral protein
contains no phosphorus. The two batches of labeled phage were then allowed to infect
separate suspensions of unlabeled bacteria. Each suspension of phage-infected cells
was agitated in a blender to shear the viral capsids from the bacteria and the bacteria
and empty viral coats were then separated by centrifugation. In the batch labeled with
32P in the phosphate groups of the DNA they found that the radioactive tracer was
visible only in bacterial cells, and not in the protein shells and in the other and in the
other batch the one with 35S in the sulfur-containing amino acids of the protein coats
they found that the indicator was present in the protein shells, but not in infected
bacteria, whereby it was confirmed that it is the genetic material that infects bacteria.