Abstract
IT has been found that the sodium salts of polyadenylic and polyuridylic acids interact1–4 with formation of a two-stranded helix1 with a structure very similar to deoxyribonucleic acid. More recently it was observed that the infra-red spectrum5 of the mixture of these two acids showed the following marked changes from the summation of the curves of the components : a 39 per cent reduction in intensity of the 1,627 cm.−1 band and a 7 cm.−1 shift to higher frequency ; a decrease in peak height (because of strong overlap the band was not integrated) and an 11 cm.−1 shift to higher frequency of the 1,661 cm.−1 band. The interaction of the sodium salts of polycytidylic and polyinosinic acids6 has now been observed in the infra-red7 with the following result : a marked decrease in intensity of the 1,651 cm.−1 peak of the sodium salt of polycytidylic acid (the intensities have not yet been put on a quantitative basis) and a 19 cm.−1 shift to higher frequency of the 1,678 cm.−1 peak of the sodium salt of polyinosinic acid.
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MILES, H. A Proposed Interpretation of Infra-red Spectral Changes occurring upon the Interaction of Polynucleotides. Nature 183, 1814 (1959). https://doi.org/10.1038/1831814a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/1831814a0
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