A microbiological assay for sodium azide

✍ Scribed by Leslie Walton; Lynn P. Elwell

• Publisher: Elsevier Science
• Year: 1980
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 386 KB
• Volume: 101
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0003-2697
• DOI: 10.1016/0003-2697(80)90037-8

✦ Synopsis

A reproducible and sensitive method is presented for quantitating sodium azide (NaN,) that exploits the fact that NaN, inhibits Escherichia coli RNA synthesis. A linear correlation is observed between incorporation of [3H]uridine into a trichloroacetic acidprecipitable form and NaN, concentration over a 3 I -to 2000~pg range of azide. This technique was used to determine the azide content of a complex enzyme solution where established calorimetric azide determinations proved to be unworkable. This technique when properly controlled should be applicable to a variety of similar solutions.

Methods

Bacterial strains. The following microorganisms were used in this investigation: Escherichia co/i CN314 (ATCC 33108), obtained from Wellcome