Fixation of nucleic acid by leaf fibre and calcium phosphate

Abstract

Calcium phosphate co-precipitates half its mass of ribonucleic acids made from yeast, tobacco leaf and tobacco mosaic virus when the precipitate is formed in their presence. It also precipitates deoxyribonucleic acid. Degraded nucleic acids are less completely precipitated. Less nucleic acid is adsorbed by preformed calcium phosphate. In suitable circumstances nucleic acid is fixed by leaf fibre. Autolytic changes in leaf fibre, and in calcium-chelators in leaf extracts, explain many differences in the amount of nucleic acid present in extracts made from tobacco leaves in different ways.