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Viscosity of Deoxyribonucleic Acid Solutions in the ‘Sub-melting’ Temperature Range

Nature volume 200, pages 1318–1319 (1963)Cite this article

Abstract

DEOXYRIBONUCLEIC acid (DNA) ‘melting’ has been mainly investigated using spectroscopic and optical rotation techniques1. To our knowledge, the viscosity behaviour associated with the ‘melting’ phenomenon has been examined only in the special cases of synthetic deoxyribopolynucleotides2 and phage DNA3. In an investigation of this subject, using DNA preparations from three different sources, it was observed that the change in intrinsic viscosity parallels the change in optical density at 260 mµ, except for the ‘sub-melting’ temperature range. The peculiar behaviour found in this region is reported here. Briefly, this is characterized by a fall in viscosity which is completely reversed on cooling and seems to be caused by the local melting of deoxy-adenylic-thymidylic (dA-T) clusters.

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References

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Centre de Recherches sur les Macromolécules, 6 rue Boussingault, Strasbourg, France

    ANNE-MARIE FREUND & GIORGIO BERNARDI

Authors
  1. ANNE-MARIE FREUND
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  2. GIORGIO BERNARDI
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FREUND, AM., BERNARDI, G. Viscosity of Deoxyribonucleic Acid Solutions in the ‘Sub-melting’ Temperature Range. Nature 200, 1318–1319 (1963). https://doi.org/10.1038/2001318b0

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