Alfred Hershey

Alfred Hershey was an American bacteriologist and geneticist whose work on bacteriophages helped establish DNA as genetic material. He shared the 1969 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.

Hershey–Chase experiment: A 1952 experiment that tracked radioactive DNA and protein in bacteriophages infecting bacteria. Hershey and Martha Chase used this experiment to show that phage DNA, rather than most phage protein, entered bacterial cells.
Phosphorus-32: A radioactive isotope of phosphorus used as a tracer in biological research. Hershey and Chase labeled phage DNA with phosphorus-32 because DNA contains phosphorus.
Martha Chase: An American geneticist who co-designed and performed the Hershey–Chase experiment with Alfred Hershey. Chase shared the experimental work that made their joint conclusion influential.
DNA: A molecule that stores hereditary information in nearly all living organisms and many viruses. The experiment strengthened the case that DNA, rather than protein, carries genetic instructions in bacteriophages.
T2 phage: A bacteriophage that infects Escherichia coli and was used in classic studies of viral reproduction. Hershey and Chase used this phage to trace DNA and protein during infection.
Sulfur-35: A radioactive isotope of sulfur used to trace sulfur-containing molecules. They labeled phage protein with sulfur-35 because some amino acids contain sulfur whereas DNA does not.
Max Delbrück: A German-American physicist and biologist who helped establish bacteriophage research as a field. Hershey worked within the phage research community Delbrück helped organize.
Molecular genetics: The study of heredity and gene function through molecular structures and processes. Hershey’s phage experiments helped make molecular approaches to genetic questions compelling.
Blender experiment: The use of mechanical agitation to separate bacteriophage coats from infected bacterial cells. Blending let Hershey and Chase distinguish material attached to bacterial surfaces from material that entered cells.
Bacterial transformation: A process in which bacteria take up external genetic material and acquire new traits. Transformation offered a separate experimental route to identifying DNA as hereditary material.

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