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Structure Determination of Biomolecules by Physical Methods

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Biophysics

Abstract

Proteins and nucleic acids are macromolecules, with dimensions up to some 102 nm and molecular weights up to 108. To determine their idealized global structural parameters, physical methods as developed for polymer analytics are especially useful. Whereas even large biomolecules have well-defined molecular weights, correlated with their specialized function, synthetic polymers have not but instead are characterized by a molecular weight distribution. Depending on the measuring method used, different average values may thus result. The following types of means have been introduced in polymer chemistry, defining

$$ {{\bar{M}}_{x}} = \frac{{\sum {{{N}_{i}} \cdot {\text{M}}_{i}^{x}} }}{{\sum {{{N}_{i}} \cdot {\text{M}}_{i}^{{x - 1}}} }} $$

N i , number of molecules with molecular weight M i .

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Authors
  1. Friedrich Dörr
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Max-Planck-Institut für Biochemie, Am Klopferspitz, D-8033, Martinsried, Germany

    Walter Hoppe

  2. Institut für Biophysik, Universität Gießen Strahlenzentrum, Leihgesterner Weg 217, D-6300, Gießen, Germany

    Wolfgang Lohmann

  3. Fakultät für Biologie, Universität Konstanz, Postfach 5560, D-7750, Konstanz, Germany

    Hubert Markl

  4. Institut für Botanik und Mikrobiologie, Technischen Universität München, Arcisstraße 21, D-8000, München 2, Germany

    Hubert Ziegler

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Dörr, F. (1983). Structure Determination of Biomolecules by Physical Methods. In: Hoppe, W., Lohmann, W., Markl, H., Ziegler, H. (eds) Biophysics. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-68877-5_3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-68877-5_3

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