Abstract
Calf thymus DNA was irradiated in oxygen saturated 0.01 N NaCl solution with 2 μs pulses of 15 MeV electrons. By monitoring the decrease of light scattering intensity after the pulse, two modes of decrease were detected: The fast decrease (τ½ ≈ 0.8 ms) is ascribed to the separation of DNA fragments produced by double strand breaks at positions directly opposite to each other. The slow decrease (τ½ ≈ 8s) is attributed to the detachment of segments generated by single strand breaks at sites on the alternate strands being separated by about 10 nucleotide units.
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