[Campbell Biology P.302] What was Francisco Mojica's initial hypothesis about the function o... | Practice Question

What was Francisco Mojica's initial hypothesis about the function of the regularly spaced repeats he found, which later turned out to be incorrect?

  • A: They were part of a bacterial immune system.
  • B: They were remnants of viral DNA with no function.
  • C: They were related to adaptation to salinity and affected gene expression.
  • D: They were involved in the replication of the bacterial chromosome.

Explanation

In the interview, Mojica says, 'We thought maybe these repeats were affected by salinity and would in turn affect gene expression, but we were absolutely wrong!' This directly states his initial, incorrect hypothesis.