| Abstract: | The rate of renaturation of DNA may be increased by altering the effective solvent volume available for DNA in solution. Accelerations are demonstrated when neutral and anionic dextran polymers are used to exclude volume in DNA solutions. The logarithm of the DNA renaturation rate constant is shown to be proportional to the concentration of dextran polymer and to be proportional to the intrinsic viscosity of a series of dextran polymers of identical chemical composition. A theory is proposed to account for these results. |
