Suppose Meselson & Stahl Had Observed the Following Data in Their

question 53

Multiple Choice

Suppose Meselson & Stahl had observed the following data in their famous experiment involving a switch from medium containing ¹⁵N to ¹⁴N.What would they have concluded about the nature of DNA replication?

• A) They still would have concluded that DNA replication is semiconservative, i.e., each double helix contains one parental strand and one newly synthesized strand.
• B) They would have concluded that DNA replication is conservative, i.e., one double helix contains only the parental strands, while the other contains only newly synthesized DNA.
• C) They would have concluded that DNA replication is dispersive/random, i.e., each strand of each double helix contains a mixture of parental and newly synthesized sequences.
• D) They would have been unable to distinguish which is correct.