Matthew Meselson and Franklin Stahl published an
experiment in 1958 that changed the way DNA
replication was looked at. The two scientists met at a
party while attending the California Institute of
Technology. When they met, Meselson was a
graduate student and Stahl was a postdoctoral
researcher. Their experiment on the replication of
DNA helped to cement the concept of the double helix
structure of DNA. The results of the Meselson-Stahl
experiment contradicted with the findings of the Watson and Crick experiment, in which DNA
replication was conservative. The Meselson-Stahl experiment confirmed that DNA replication
was semi conservative because each daughter cell contains a strand of DNA from each parent. If
DNA replication was conservative, as Watson and Crick thought, then the daughter cells would
contain one with all original genetic information and one with all new genetic information.
When they performed this experiment, Meselson and Stahl knew DNA replication could occur in
one of three methods: semi-conservative, conservative, or dispersive. They found that DNA
replication is semi-conservative because
DNA replication should produce two
densities; one like the first generation and
one normal.
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