Denaturation and Other Topics

Denaturation may cause any of the following properties to change solubility, biological activity, molecular size and shape, or susceptibility 

TABLE 10-V H Bond Lengths in Pyrimidines, Purines, and Similar Compounds 

5- Aminotetrazole N2H4 (bond between ring N atoms) 

It seems definite that denaturation of proteins and nucleic acids does depend on the m/r molecular H bonds which are partly responsible for the structure. Apparently a critical number of H bonds must be broken before the irreversible denaturation occurs. Cox and Peacocke (455) present a simplified mathematical attack on denaturation which may have promise. They use a statistical method of finding the number of 

H bonds (in sequence) which must be broken simultaneously for a DNA molecule to denature. Calculated values are small (10-50), compared to the total number of H bonds present per molecule ( 20,000). 

---