Abstract
Summary
Heating of DNA-rich preparations from smooth, but not from mucoid, Brucella abortus cells resulted in the appearance of complement-fixing antigens that were insensitive to DNAase but sensitive to sodium periodate. The effect of heating was not due to its single-stranding of DNA, and DNA itself apparently was not required for antigenic activity of the heat-revealed antigens. Prior to heating, however, the heat-revealed antigens appear to be complexed with DNA. This is supported by the finding that following density-gradient centrifugation, which separates a DNA preparation into a nucleic acid fraction and less dense fractions, heating neither the individual fraction nor the pooled fractions resulted in the appearance of heat-revealed antigens. Evidence to date suggests that the heat-revealed antigens are similar to, or identical with, smooth cell-surface antigens, and that, at least in cellular extracts, the unique association of such cell-surface antigens with nucleic acids might be a fairly general phenomenon.
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