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Purification of Plant Ribosomal DNA

Use of Buoyant Density Centrifugation in Cesium Chloride-Actinomycin D Gradients and DNA-RNA Hybridization

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Experiments in Molecular Biology

Part of the book series: Springer Protocols Handbooks ((SPH))

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Abstract

The general features of isopycnic centrifugation of DNA and the separation of main-band from satellite DNAs in solutions of cesium chloride are discussed in the preceeding chapter. This chapter describes a modification of the procedure that enhances the separation of specific DNA sequences from main-band DNA. The method is based on the fact that actinomycin D binds preferentially to DNA molecules with a high-GC content. This lowers their density relative to main-band and other satellite DNAs so that they can be resolved separately. Cesium chloride-actinomycin D gradients have been used to isolate sea urchin histone genes (1) and plant ribosomal DNA (2), and to separate genes coding for plant 25S and 18S from 5S RNA genes (3) and as a prelude to the cloning of ribosomal DNA (4).

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References

  1. Birnstiel, M., Telford, J., Weinberg, E., and Stafford, D. (1974) Isolation and some properties of the genes coding for histone proteins. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 71, 2900–2904.

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  2. Hemleben, J., Grierson, D., and Dertmann, H. (1977) The use of equilibrium centrifugation in actinomycin-cesium chloride for the purification of ribosomal DNA. Plant Sci. Lett. 9, 129–135.

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  3. Hemleben, V. and Grierson, D. (1978) Evidence that in higher plants the 25S and 185 rRNA genes are not interspersed with genes for 5S rRNA. Chromosoma (Berlin) 65, 353–358.

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  4. Friedrich, J., Hemleben, V., Meagher, R.G., and Key, J.L. (1979) Purification and restriction endonuclease mapping of soybean 18S and 25S ribosomal RNA genes. Planta 146, 467–473.

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  5. Grierson, D. (1982) RNA Processing and Other Posttranscriptional Events, in: Nucleic Acids and Proteins in Plants, Vol. II (Parthier, B. and Boulter, D., eds.) Springer-Verlag, Berlin-Heidelberg.

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Robert J. Slater

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© 1986 The Humana Press Inc.

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Grierson, D. (1986). Purification of Plant Ribosomal DNA. In: Slater, R.J. (eds) Experiments in Molecular Biology. Springer Protocols Handbooks. Humana Press, Totowa, NJ. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-60327-405-0_11

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-60327-405-0_11

  • Publisher Name: Humana Press, Totowa, NJ

  • Print ISBN: 978-0-89603-082-4

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-60327-405-0

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

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