to prevent injury, decay, waste, or loss of: Conserve your strength for the race. to use or manage (natural resources) wisely; preserve; save: Conserve the woodlands. Physics, Chemistry. to hold (a property) constant during an interaction or process: the interaction conserved linear momentum.
Using a bacteriophage (virus) and the bacterium Escherichia coli, Hershey and Chase were able to show that only viral DNA entered the host; thus it was DNA that directed the production of new viral particles. This strongly suggested that DNA was the genetic material. 1  Take a tour of the Hershey-Chase Experiment.
Cell - DNA: the genetic material: During the early 19th century, it became widely accepted that all living organisms are composed of cells arising only from the growth and division of other cells. The improvement of the microscope then led to an era during which many biologists made intensive observations of the microscopic structure of cells.