Die Bestimmung des Nucleinsäuregehaltes pflanzlicher Viren mit Hilfe einer spektrophotometrischen Methode

Abstract

The RNA content of plant viruses has been determined following the procedure of WARBURG and CHRISTIAN, after eliminating light scattering of the virus suspensions by calculation using Rayleigh’ s formula or by means of comparison with polystyrene latex suspensions of corresponding turbidity. The general validity of the methods has been proved by measurements on 9 plant viruses. It is shown that the RNA content found by this spectrophotometric method is in good agreement with that amount ascertained by chemical analysis. Based upon these results a mean curve has been drawn which gives the RNA content of a virus from spectrophotometric measurement. This curve also can be used for the determination of the purity of a virus preparation. A special formula is given for the quantitative spectrophotometric analysis of a mixture of two viruses differing in their RNA content.