Thymine content of sea water as a measure of biosynthetic potential

✍ Scribed by H. -J. Breter; B. Kurelec; W. E. G. Müller; R. K. Zahn

• Publisher: Springer-Verlag
• Year: 1977
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 763 KB
• Volume: 40
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0025-3162
• DOI: 10.1007/bf00390621

✦ Synopsis

A hydrolysis procedure along with a high-pressure liquid chromatographic procedure is given enabling simple and reliable thymine determinations in the nanogram range in different fractions of sea-water samples taken from three different locations in the Northern Adriatic Sea. The levels corresponded to I-3 ~g DNA per liter. From total polyanionic thymine, which had been precipitated as the cetyltrimethylammonium salt, the highest percentage was linked to the particulate fraction, with a definite subsurface minimum at 10 to 15 m. There was a corresponding maximum of a high molecular "non-particulate" thymine-containing fraction at the corresponding depth.

From the bottom at 30 m upwards to about 20 m, a low molecular thymine-containing material has been found. Remarkably these basic features were common to all three locations, one of which was supposed to be in clean water, one near a thickly settled, touristic area, and the other in front of a large river delta coming from industrial hinterland.