Abstract
THE treatment of deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) with anhydrous hydrazine causes the degradation and removal of the pyrimidine bases but leaves the rest of the polynucleotide chain more or less intact1,2. This degradation of the pyrimidine ring occurs irrespective of whether the pyrimidines occur as part of a nucleic acid or as free base, nucleoside or nucleotide1–5. This reaction has recently been considered in detail by Temperli et al.5. The pyrimidine-free DNA (apyrimidinic acid) can be hydrolysed by potassium hydroxide4 to tracts of oligopurine nucleotides having the general formula, (purine nucleoside)n (pho.sphate)n+1, where n has been observed to vary from 1 to 13 (refs. 4, 6, 7). For any one value of n, these tracts are known as isostichs8.
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References
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ELLERY, B., SYMONS, R. Loss of Adenine during the Hydrazine Degradation of Deoxyribonucleic Acid. Nature 210, 1159–1160 (1966). https://doi.org/10.1038/2101159b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/2101159b0
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