The fluorometric determination of nucleic acids in pea seeds by use of ethidium bromide complexes

El-Hamalawi, Abdel-Rahman A.; Thompson, J; Barker, G. R.

doi:10.1016/0003-2697(75)90309-7

Cited by 16 publications

(1 citation statement)

References 13 publications

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“…(2) DNA, and RNA, synthesis rates have been proposed as a measure of microbial productivity (e. g. Karl, 1981;Moriarity and Pollard, 1981;Fuhrman and Azam, 1982) but specific rates cannot be calculated for natural populations if there are significant detrital DNA or RNA concentrations. The presence of large amounts of extra-and intra-cellular RNAses (El-Hamalawi et al, 1975), and the rapid turnover of RNA in cells, suggests it is not very likely to be present in non-living organic matter. The data and discussion presented here suggest that detrital DNA is not as much of a problem as originally hypothesized (Holm-Hansen et al, 1968), but more direct evidence is still required.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

RNA/DNA ratios and DNA concentrations as indicators of growth rate and biomass in planktonic marine organisms

Dortch¹,

Roberts²,

Clayton³

et al. 1983

Mar. Ecol. Prog. Ser.

176

116

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RNA and DNA concentrations were measured by a modification of the ethidium bromide method in batch cultures of marine phytoplankton and in natural plankton populations (1 to 333 v) from Dabob Bay, Washington State, USA, in spring and summer of 1981. In the cultures the DNA/C ratio remained nearly constant during all phases of growth and growth rate was linearly related to the RNA/DNA ratio. The DNA/C ratio and the relationship between growth rate and RNA/DNA ratio for cultures was used to estimate the amount of living biomass and the growth rates for plankton populations of Dabob Bay. The amount of living carbon was never < 57 % of the total particulate carbon and average growth rates ranged from (0.3 divisions d-' to >4 divisions d-'. Some of the potential problems with such calculations, for example, occurrence of detrital DNA, variability in the D N N C ratio for different groups of organisms, and differences in the relationship between growth rate and RNA/DNA ratio, are discussed. However, these problems may not be major obstacles to using DNA concentrations and RNNDNA ratios for answering major questions in biological oceanography.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%