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NUCLEIC
ACIDS OF THYMUS AND SPLEEN*
BY ERWIN CHARGAFF, ERNST VISCHER,t RUTH
DONIGER, CHARLOTTI!: GREEN, AND FERNANDA
MISANI
(From the Department of Biochemistry, College of
Physicians and Xurgeons, Columbia UniveqGty, New York)
(Received for publication, July 28, 1948)
While the early workers in this field, such as Miescher and
Hopne-Seyler, appear to have conjectured the
macromolecular and complex character of the nucleic acids
that they were the first to isolate, this view soon was
abandoned in favor of the chemically more attractive tetra
nucleotide hypothesis, and those students of nucleic acid
chemistry (e.g. (1, 2)) who still felt that much remained to be
discovered worked against the current of their time.
In the more recent past, the development of methods for the
study and the characterization of high polymers has brought
about a revival of interest in the chemistry of macro
molecules occurring in nature.
As regards the desoxyribonucleic acid of calf thymus, the
high molecular character of this extremely asymmetric
compound has been demonstrated repeatedly (3-6).
That this nucleic acid was considered as the prototype of all
desoxypentose nucleic acids is understandable, since it is
the only compound of its kind readily available for a detailed
chemical investigation, but the implicit assumption on the
part of many workers that desoxypentose nucleic acid is a
single chemical individual, regardless of the source from
which it is obtained, is incorrect.
A comparison of the results contained in the present
communication with those submitted in an accompanying
paper (7) will be of interest in this connection.
A recent study from this laboratory (8), as well as a review
article (9), has provided a fuller discussion of the pertinent
literature.
The problem of nucleic acid specificity also has been
considered repeatedly (10, 11).
The great part in the activities of the living cell, ascribed at
present to the desoxypentose nucleic acids, makes it
imperative to perfect a foundation that will make possible
the direct consideration of problems of structure,
composition, and specificity.
Whatever chemical changes are produced in nucleic acids
in the course of cellular development or by radiations or
mutagens, such as the compounds of the mustard series,
will hardly be of the kind that can be revealed by the mere
inspection of optical or other physical characteristics.
* This work has been supported by a research grant form
the United States Public Health Service.
+ Swiss-American Student Exchange fellow.
NUCLEICOS
DE
Acids*
desoxipentosa *
purina fue
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