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. 1968 Mar;95(3):986–990. doi: 10.1128/jb.95.3.986-990.1968

Separation of Bacterial Ribosomal Ribonucleic Acid from Its Macromolecular Precursors by Polyacrylamide Gel Electrophoresis

Norman B Hecht 1, Carl R Woese 1
PMCID: PMC252121  PMID: 4966836

Abstract

Electrophoresis on polyacrylamide gels was found to be a powerful technique for separating the mature from the precursor forms of bacterial ribosomal nucleic acid (rRNA). The separation of the 16S rRNA from its precursor was, for all practical purposes, complete; that of the 23S rRNA from its precursor was detectable but incomplete. When mature and precursor rRNA preparations were heated to randomize secondary structure, etc., and then cooled, it was found that electrophoretic mobility differences between mature forms of rRNA and their precursors persisted. This, in conjunction with the rather large electrophoretic mobility differences between mature and precursor forms, can be taken as strong evidence for a molecular weight difference between mature rRNA and its precursor forms of RNA. With the 16S rRNA, this difference could be as large as 130,000 daltons.

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Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

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