Suppose Meselson & Stahl Had Observed the Following Data in Their

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.