Transforming DNA has been irradiated in solution over a wide range of concentrations, and the ionic yield determined for inactivation of the biological transforming activity. The D37's ranged from 65 r to several thousand roentgens, depending on the DNA preparation and the concentration. The maximum observed yield indicated that a mass of 500,000 molecular weight was inactivated per ion pair, which corresponds rather closely to the sensitivity observed for direct action also. No aftereffect of irradiation was observed, nor was an effect of removing O2 found. It appears that in sufficiently pure solutions one may observe the effect of at least two intermediates, suspected as being OH and H. Finally, it may be concluded that in vitro a radical has a probability near unity of inactivating a DNA molecule biologically if it gets to the molecule, but that in vivo relatively few of the radicals produced probably do find the DNA.
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DeFilippes et al. (1959) studied this question.
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