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Fractionation of Deoxyribonucleic Acid by Physical Procedures

Abstract

THE use of an ultra-violet light absorption system for determining the sedimentation characteristics of deoxyribonucleic acid at low concentrations has already been described1. Further work has shown that the sedimenting boundary is stable and that the measurements can be made at concentrations of deoxyribonucleic acid as low as 10−5 gm./ml. It has been found for five preparations from calf thymus which have been studied2 that the distributions of sedimentation constants at infinite dilution (for solutions in 0.2 M sodium chloride) covered a range from S 0 = 10 to at least S 0 = 40, and that the individual distributions differed significantly, the average sedimentation constant varying from S 0 = 23 to S 0 = 29.

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References

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SHOOTER, K., BUTLER, J. Fractionation of Deoxyribonucleic Acid by Physical Procedures. Nature 177, 1033–1034 (1956). https://doi.org/10.1038/1771033b0

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