Translational and Rotational Diffusion Constants of Tobacco Mosaic Virus from Rayleigh Linewidths

Abstract

The translational and rotational diffusion constants of tobacco mosaic virus (TMV) have been determined from homodyne and heterodyne measurements of the spectrum of laser light scattered from dilute aqueous solutions of TMV. Our results for the translational and rotational constants respectively, reduced to 20°C, are: DT = 0.280 ± 0.006 × 10-7 cm2/sec, and DR = 320 ± 18 sec-1. We include a theoretical derivation of the spectrum of light scattered from rod-shaped molecules which reproduces results obtained previously by Pecora, but which is specialized at the outset to the problem of dilute solutions so that simple single-particle correlation functions may be utilized. An analysis of the photocurrent spectrum for both the homodyne and heterodyne detection schemes is given. Various data reduction schemes utilized in the analysis of our spectra are described in some detail, and our results are compared with values of the diffusion constants obtained from other experiments. © 1969, The Biophysical Society. All rights reserved.