Denaturation of RNA with dimethyl sulfoxide
Abstract
The denaturation of single-stranded and double-stranded RNA's in solutions with varying proportions of dimethyl sulfoxide has been followed by changes in absorbancy, optical rotation, and—with a double-stranded form of bacteriophage of MS2 RNA— infectivity for bacterial spheroplasts. By these criteria the RNA's studied, including the synthetic polynucleotide rG:rC, are completely denatured at room temperature in high concentrations of this solvent. In lower concentrations, the T_m of the RNA preparation is decreased only slightly as the dimethyl sulfoxide concentration is raised until a critical concentration is reached. The T_m falls sharply with small further increases in dimethyl sulfoxide concentration. Sedimentation studies can be conducted directly in these media. The determination of sedimentation velocity in 99% dimethyl sulfoxide containing 0.001M EDTA provides a reliable estimate of RNA molecular weights.
Additional Information
© 1968 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.Additional details
- Eprint ID
- 68550
- Resolver ID
- CaltechAUTHORS:20160620-160329550
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2016-06-22Created from EPrint's datestamp field
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2021-11-11Created from EPrint's last_modified field