SEDIMENTATION, DIFFUSION, AND OSMOTIC PRESSURE OF SODIUM DNA IN SALT-FREE SOLUTION

The osmotic, sedimentation, and diffusion coefficients of sonicated sodium DNA in aqueous solutions which were rendered rigorously free of salts have been obtained in order to study the polyelectrolyte effect on these parameters. Both native and heat denatured DNA's were studied. All three parameters were found to be independent of concentration between 2 and 10 mmole/1. The osmotic coefficient gives the fraction of counterions not immobilized by the polyelectrolyte potential, under conditions of equilibrium. The value (ca. 0.18) obtained for this fraction agrees very well with that predicted by a theory of rodlike polyelectrolytes. A simplified model that permits the computation of fractions of mobile ions from sedimentation and diffusion coefficients, when applied to the experimental data, showed that under these conditions of flow between 0.5 to 0.9 of counterions are not immobilized. The experimental data also showed that for native DNA the translation frictional coefficient seems to have different values in sedimentation and diffusion, which agrees with a finding reported for another saltfree polyelectrolyte. For denatured DNA, however, the values were found to be equal: no satisfactory explanation could be found for this difference of behavior. Copyright © 1969 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.