Changes in the Macromolecular Structure of DNA-RNA-Protein Complexes Induced by Gel-Filtration on Sephadex G-25

Hydrodynamic shearing forces appearing during nucleoprotein gel-filtration on Sephadex G-25 cause a disruption of the macromolecular structure in nucleoproleins. The effect of these shearing forces can be observed both in electron micrographs and by electro­phoretic analysis. The decrease of the molecular weight and also the changes in the electronegative charge,mole­cular weight ratio cause an increase of the electrophoretic mobility of the gel-filtered highly poly­merized DNA and of the RNA complexed to it compared with the not gel-filtered nucleoprotein.