Date of Award

1976

Degree Type

Thesis

Department

Plants, Soils, and Climate

Abstract

The purpose of this project is to investigate the effect of increasing concentrations of urea on the sedimentation rate of the curly top virus dimer as measured by ultracentrifugation techniques. In general, urea causes the breaking of hydrogen bonds in macromolecules--in the case of the virus, increased concentrations of urea should cause changes in the configuration of the virus and may possibly cause a separation of the dimer into monomers. From previous centrifugation studies, we know that the dimer has a characteristic sedimentation coefficient(S) of about 80 Svedbergs; the monomer has an S value of about 55 Svedberg units. Increased concentrations of urea should cause increased changes in the configuration of the virus particle with a concomitant decrease in the sedimentation coefficient.

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