THE ACTION OF PANCREATIC DESOXYRIBONUCLEASE

Abstract

The nature of the products of the action of pancreatic desoxyribonuclease (DNase) upon highly polymerized desoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) has been the subject of numerous investigations. Titrimetric studies (1-5) have revealed that, during the digestion, approximately one secondary phosphate group becomes titratable per 4 phosphorus atoms, which may be interpreted to mean that the products are, on the average, of the magnitude of tetranucleotides. More recently, ionophoretic (9), diffusion (5), and dialysis (10, 11) studies of the digest have suggested that it contains a complex mixture of polynucleotides of a range of magnitudes.