THE PROPERTIES OF BIOLOGICAL MACROMOLECULES IN SOLUTION

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Abstract
Synthetic polymers and some naturally occurring polymers exhibit 3 types of physical properties, dependent upon whether the molecular chains are in rapid Brownian motion as in a rubber, in a randomly coiled but rigid state as in a plastic, or held in a single, ordered configuration in the crystalline state. The much more delicate and highly differentiated functions performed by proteins and deoxyribose nucleic acids appear to require that their constituent molecular chains be arranged in a periodic fashion within the macromolecule itself. These patterns of intramolecular architecture are found to be the same in the solid, crystalline state and in solution. The periodic chain arrangement within the macrdmolecule in each case underoges a sharp, first-order-like transition to a randomly coiled state when conditions are suitably altered. Although all these transitions are to some extent reversible, only in the single polypeptide chain is this completely the case.

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