[Density-gradient centrifugation in lithium metatungstate and tris-(hydroxymethyl)aminomethane phosphotungstate]

Abstract

New substances--lithium metatungstate (MTL) and tris-(hydroxymethyl)aminomethane phosphotungstate (PTT)--have been presented for density-gradient preparation. The buoyant densities of protein, RNA, DNA and some nucleoproteins were determined in solutions of these salts. Nucleic acids have been smaller buoyant density (1.1 g/cm3) than the proteins in contrast to CsCl-gradients. The protein in PTT solution have buoyant density 1.5 g/cm3 and in MTL solution 2.0-2,3 g/cm3. It was shown that MTL gradients allow to reach better resolution in nucleoprotein analysis than CsCl gradients.