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The effect of urea and sodium chloride on the viscosity of DNA has been examined at very low concentrations and rates of shear in a Couette viscometer. An increase of apparent intrinsic viscosity occurs in urea, but at higher concentrations of the polymer a reduction of viscosity is observed. When treated with urea, the intrinsic viscosity of the nucleic acid becomes lowered by sodium chloride. The results are consistent with a dimeric hydrogen‐bonded structure of the DNA molecule, which undergoes scission in the presence of urea to form more flexible fragments.
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B. E. Conway (1956) studied this question.
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