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Effect of X-Rays on the Incorporation of Carbon-14 into Desoxyribonucleic Acid

Abstract

IT was observed by several experimenters1 that the incorporation of phosphorus-32 into desoxyribonucleic acid of the Jensen sarcoma, and also of normal organs, of the rat is markedly reduced by irradiation with an X-ray dose of some hundred röntgens. This result strongly suggests the explanation that the rate of formation of desoxyribonucleic acid is reduced by the effect of ionizing radiation, though the objection may be raised that it is the re-phosphorylation of the molecule during incorporation of labelled phosphate which is hampered, and not the formation or the assembly of the main constituents of the nucleic acid molecule. To avoid this objection, the effect of X-rays on the incorporation of carbon-14 into the purines of desoxyribonucleic acid in the organs of rapidly growing rats has been studied.

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References

  1. A survey of earlier work has been given by Hevesy, G., Rev. Mod. Phys., 17, 102 (1945). See also Jones, H. B., personal communication (1946). Mitchell, J. S., and Holmes, B. E., Ann. Rep. British Empire Cancer Campaign, 136 (1947). Holmes, B. E., Brit. J. Radiol., 20, 450 (1947).

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  3. Darlington, C. D., Symp. Soc. Exp. Biol., 1, 252 (Cambridge Univ. Press, 1947).

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HEVESY, G. Effect of X-Rays on the Incorporation of Carbon-14 into Desoxyribonucleic Acid. Nature 163, 869–870 (1949). https://doi.org/10.1038/163869c0

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