What did hershey and chase observe in the offspring bacteria?

Hershey and Chase, in their 1952 experiment, aimed to determine the genetic material responsible for heredity in bacteria. They used bacteriophages, viruses that infect bacteria, as a model system. Here's what they observed in the offspring bacteria:

1. When they infected bacteria with bacteriophages that had a protein coat labeled with radioactive sulfur, the offspring bacteria did not inherit any of the radioactive material. This indicated that the protein coat of the bacteriophage did not carry the genetic material.

2. In contrast, when they infected bacteria with bacteriophages that had DNA labeled with radioactive phosphorus, the offspring bacteria showed the presence of radioactive DNA. This observation strongly suggested that DNA is the genetic material responsible for the transmission of hereditary traits in bacteria.

Their experiments provided strong evidence that DNA, rather than proteins, was the hereditary material. This laid the foundation for understanding the role of DNA in genetic inheritance and became a crucial discovery in molecular biology.