RECENT DEVELOPMENTS OF ANALYTICAL ULTRACENTRIFUGATION IN BIOPOLYMER RESEARCH

The development of the analytical ultracentrifuge as a full on-line co mputer controlled device enables an ever broader application of these ultracentrifuge methods for characterizing macromolecular substances. In this short review some of the numerous possibilities for analyzing biopolymers with respect to solution conformation, conformational chan ges, association behavior, and homologous and heterologous interaction s (including the thermodynamics) are discussed. Most of the results pr esented here are from the last five years and should be helpful for re searchers to get an insight into the structure function relationships of biopolymers.