In an experiment, a scientist makes a radioactively labeled probe using human DNA. She then discovers that the probe hybridizes to a small segment of DNA isolated from a plant. What can she conclude from her results?

Question

anonymous · Answer

A. The Geiger counter being used to detect radiation is broken. 
B. Two or more samples we accidentally swapped, causing confusion. 
C. A virus contaminated the reaction in which the probe was made. 
D. The human genome might contain at least one viral gene.

anonymous · Answer

When a DNA probe hybridizes, this means that a complementary sequence of nucleotides is present. Thus, D is your answer. When the probe was set with the human genome it must have been altered, most likely due to previously inserted viral genome fragments present in the human DNA. I guess it's possible that B or C could be right, but since D makes the most sense, and because it does not definitively say this happened ("might") it is the best option.

abb0t · Answer

Do you understand what it means to hybridize? Or the word "hybrid" means?

abb0t · Answer

How did you get those answer choices when they weren't even listed? How strange.

abb0t · Answer

I suspect cheating going on here.

anonymous · Answer

I had this on a test and I looked on line!