Question

A space probe returns with a culture of a microorganism found on a distant planet. analysis shows that it is a carbon-based life-form that has dna. you grow the cells in 15n medium for several generations and then transfer them to 14n medium for one generation (1 round of dna replication). which pattern (shown below) would you expect if the dna was replicated in a conservative manner?

Answer 1

I believe that the pattern that would be expected is both 14 N and 15 N, this is because the DNA was replicated in a conservative manner. Semi conservative replication would produce two copies that each contained one of the original strands and one new strand, while Conservative replication would leave the two original template DNA strands together in a double helix and would produce a copy composed of two new strands containing all of the new DNA base pairs