Abstract
THE addition of sodium chloride has a marked effect in reducing the electrostatic interaction between deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) molecules in solution, as is shown by the decrease in the slope of the concentration dependence of reduced viscosity (ηsp/c.) with the increase of added salt1,2. This work shows that the same information can also be obtained from the variation of the concentration dependence of sedimentation coefficient of DNA with the addition of sodium chloride. Fig. 1 is a plot of the reciprocal of the sedimentation coefficient, 1/S20,w versus DNA concentration, at sodium chloride concentrations of 0.001 M, 0.01 M, 0.1 M, 0.15 M and 0.2 M. Changes in the slope of the curves as well as a constant extrapolated value of sedimentation coefficient at zero concentration, S020,w = 22.7 × 10−13 sec, at different concentrations of salt, reveal a close similarity between the concentration dependence of reduced viscosity and that of the reciprocal of sedimentation coefficient, in the case of DNA in solution.
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GANGULI, P., BHATTACHARYYA, A. Concentration Dependence of Sedimentation Coefficient of Deoxyribonucleic Acid with added Sodium Chloride. Nature 196, 1201–1203 (1962). https://doi.org/10.1038/1961201a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/1961201a0
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