Beadle and Tatum & DNA replication (1 Viewer)

[FC ATAR]

Hello all,

I was curious as to how much detail I should know about Beadle and Tatum's experiment and If anyone could link me to any good info on DNA replication and the structure of DNA because that's the thing that's challenging me currently in Biology (that and an extremely unproductive holidays)

Thanks!

 

[astab]

You basically need to know their experiment and what their findings showed.

They irradiated a strand of neurospora crassa (a certain bread mould) and found that the mutation inhibited the production and use of certain enzymes. They also cross-bred the mutated strain with an unaffected mould and found that some offspring were also unable to produce the enzyme, showing that these mutations are able to be inherited genetically.

But the main finding from all this was that one gene was responsible for the production of one specific enzyme and thus, certain enzymes couldn't be produced because their complementary genes had been destroyed by the mutation.

After more research in later years they found that genes code for the production of more than just enzymes. They code for polypeptides in general, and so their "one gene-one enzyme" hypothesis changed to "one gene-one polypeptide".

Hope this helps!