5
Views
11
CrossRef citations to date
0
Altmetric
Original Article

Energy Requirements for Damaging DNA Molecules

I. Energy Transfer from Metastable States of Excited Gases

&
Pages 221-228 | Received 29 Jan 1973, Accepted 23 Feb 1973, Published online: 03 Jul 2009
 

Summary

DNA of bacteriophage ΦX174 freeze-dried in extremely thin layers was exposed to metastably-excited gases. The loss of infectivity and the frequency of strand breaks was measured in the spheroplast system and by centrifugation in an alkaline sucrose gradient, respectively. The excitation energies of the various gases used amount to 4·3 eV for H2*, 6·2 eV for N2*, 11·6 eV for Ar*, and 19·8 eV for He*. These energies are transferred to the DNA molecules by ‘collisions of the second kind’. The experiments show that 76·5 ± 9·4 per cent of the inactivated DNA molecules carry at least one strand break, a value found not to depend on the amount of energy primarily transferred. Thus, the action of excited gases is entirely different from the effects of U.V. quanta and slow electrons even if identical energies are transferred in all cases.

Reprints and Corporate Permissions

Please note: Selecting permissions does not provide access to the full text of the article, please see our help page How do I view content?

To request a reprint or corporate permissions for this article, please click on the relevant link below:

Academic Permissions

Please note: Selecting permissions does not provide access to the full text of the article, please see our help page How do I view content?

Obtain permissions instantly via Rightslink by clicking on the button below:

If you are unable to obtain permissions via Rightslink, please complete and submit this Permissions form. For more information, please visit our Permissions help page.