Persistence length of DNA

✍ Scribed by John B. Hays; Magar E. Magar; Bruno H. Zimm

• Book ID: 101716802
• Publisher: Wiley (John Wiley & Sons)
• Year: 1969
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 371 KB
• Volume: 8
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0006-3525
• DOI: 10.1002/bip.1969.360080410

✦ Synopsis

I n the wormlike chain (Kratky-Porod) model of DNA the stiffness of the chain is determined by the persistence length, a. The persistence length may be evaluated from light-scattering measurements of the molecular weight and the mean-square radius if the samples are not polydisperse or if the polydispersity can be quantitatively determined. The persistence length can also be evaluated with the aid of hydrodynamic theory from measurements of intrinsic viscosity and sedimentation coefficient. Data taken from the literature and from other studies by the authors are examiyd by these methods. The light-scattering moethod yields a value of a of 900 f 200 A; the hydrodynamic data yield 600 f 100 A. These values are considerably larger than those obtained by most previous authors.