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Independence of length and temperature effects on the rate of helix formation between complementary ribopolymers
Author(s) -
Lee Cheng H.,
Wetmur James G.
Publication year - 1972
Publication title -
biopolymers
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.556
H-Index - 125
eISSN - 1097-0282
pISSN - 0006-3525
DOI - 10.1002/bip.1972.360110303
Subject(s) - chemistry , helix (gastropod) , melting temperature , crystallography , dna , thermodynamics , biochemistry , materials science , physics , ecology , snail , composite material , biology
Abstract The rate of double helix formation by single stranded Poly A plus Poly U, Poly I plus Poly C, Poly G plus Poly C, and T2 DNA has been investigated as a function of both the length of the reacting strands and temperature. The length dependence of the rate is found to be independent of temperature. All of the reactions studied show a rate approximately proportional to the square root of the length of the shorter of the complementary strands. At or about 30°C below the melting temperature the ribopolymers react with about the same rate. This rate is four to five times slower than DNA renaturation rates. The effect of temperature on ribopolymer reaction rates is interpreted in terms of a steady‐state model for helix propagation.