The Rosalind Franklin Papers

Title:

Notes on tobacco mosaic virus [to John Desmond Bernal]

Description:

During her first few months at Birkbeck, Franklin submitted this informal memo regarding the direction her TMV research might take.

Item is handwritten.

Number of Image Pages:

2 (34,488 Bytes)

Date:

1953-05-18 (May 18, 1953)

Creator:

Franklin, Rosalind

Source:

Original Repository: Churchill Archives Centre. The Papers of Rosalind Franklin

Rights:

Reproduced from the Franklin Collection at the Churchill Archives Centre with the permission of the copyright holder.

Subject:

Medical Subject Headings (MeSH):: Tobacco Mosaic Virus; RNA

Exhibit Category:

Envisioning Viruses: Birkbeck College, London, 1953-1958

Folder Number:

2/31

Unique Identifier:

KRBBDQ

Document Type:

Notes

Memorandums

Language:

English

Format:

application/pdf

image/tif

Series: Work on Tobacco Mosaic Virus (TMV)

Folder: Franklin File kept by Professor Bernal, Birkbeck College, 1953-1958

Transcript:

Professor Bernal

Here are the notes you asked me for, on both TMV and the coal problem. I hope this is what you wanted.

R.E.F.

[END PAGE ONE]

[BEGIN PAGE TWO]

T. M. V. products obtained by Prof. Jeemer (Brussels)

TMV solutions contain a light fraction which can be separated by high speed centrifugation. (The light fraction contains 2 components of slightly different molecular weight).

This substance possesses the immunological properties of TMV but contains no nucleic acid.

Reducing the pH to 3.9 causes it to aggregate into rods of the same shape and size as TMV (shown by EM photographs). These rods are subsequently stable at normal pH.

It would therefore be interesting to make an X-ray study of the following substances: --

1 Normal TMV

2 The light fraction containing no RNA

3 Same as 2 aggregated into rods

4 RNA obtained in a high-molecular-weight form

Ros Franklin

18.5.53

Metadata Last Modified Date:

2006-10-20

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