The use of ultraviolet light in the fractionation of chromatin containing unsubstituted and bromodeoxyuridine-substituted DNA.

Two procedures are described for the fractionation of chromatin containing unsubstituted (LL) DNA and DNA unifilarly substituted with bromodeoxyuridine (HL). The two procedures rely upon the sensitivity of bromodeoxyuridine-containing DNA to UV light to induce either strand breakage or protein crosslinking. When a mixture of LL and HL chromatin is irradiated with UV light, the HL DNA fragments into molecules of smaller molecular weight than the LL DNA and crosslinks more chromosomal protein than the LL DNA. LL and HL chromatin can be fractionated on the basis of size by centrifuging through a neutral sucrose gradient. The HL DNA-protein adducts that are generated by the UV light have a unique buoyant density and may be isolated by isopycnic centrifugation in CS2SO4. The ability to fractionate LL and HL chromatin permits certain studies on the structure of replicating chromatin.