ISOLATION AND CHARACTERIZATION OF DEOXYRIBONUCLEIC ACID FROM A STRAIN OF STAPHYLOCOCCUS AUREUS.

Blobel, Hans (University of Wisconsin, Madison). Isolation and characterization of deoxyribonucleic acid from a strain of Staphylococcus aureus . J. Bacteriol. 82: 425–429. 1961.—Highly polymerized deoxyribonucleic acid was extracted from washed cells of Staphylococcus aureus with a mixture of equal parts of phenol and 2 m NaCl at pH 7.4. The aqueous phase was treated twice with phenol and the deoxyribonucleic acid precipitated with an equal volume of 2-ethoxyethanol. Residual ribonucleic acid was removed by treatment with ribonuclease and subsequent dialysis. Deoxyribonucleic acid was reprecipitated with 2-ethoxyethanol. The final product contained less than 1% protein. The deoxyribonucleic acid obtained from S. aureus strain S 44 had a (adenosine + thymine)/(guanine + cytosine) base ratio of 1.98. Intrinsic viscosity in 0.15 m NaCl + 0.015 m sodium citrate was approximately 76 dl/g. The sedimentation coefficient, S 20 w, was close to 25 S.