Basic charges on ribonuclease molecules and activity towards double-stranded polyribonucleotides.

One of the properties by which RNA in a double-stranded form or hybridized to DNA can be recognized, is its high resistance to digestion by bovine pancreatic RNAaseS A (EC 3.1.4.22) and by RNAase TI (EC 3.1.4.8) under ionic-strength conditions that stabilize the secondary structure of the nucleic acid (Billeter & Weissmann, 1966; Edy et al., 1976). Under the same experimental conditions single-stranded RNA is rapidly hydrolysed by these enzymes. Some RNAase species acting on single-stranded RNA have been shown to be also capable of efficiently degrading double-stranded polyribonucleotides under conditions Abbreviation: RNAase, ribonuclease.