Dissociation of nucleoprotein complexes by chaotropic salts

The effect of various anions in destabilizing yeast nucleoprotein complexes followed the order F- less than Cl- less than Br- less than ClO-4 congruent to Cl3CCOO-. Treatment of yeast nucleoproteins with 0.5 M NaClO4 resulted in removal of 80% of RNA. Based on the results, a simple method for effective separation of RNA from ribosomal particles is proposed and the mechanism of RNA dissociation by anions is also discussed.