Abstract
STUDIES of the low-angle X-ray diffraction patterns of various α-keratins by Corey and Wyckoff1, MacArthur2 and Bear and Rugo3 have established the presence of structural regularities with minimum repeat distances of the order of 200 A. parallel to the fibre axis and 90 A. perpendicular to this axis. Evidence of chemical reactivity associated with the lateral periodicity was obtained by Zahn and Kohler4, who noted the appearance of intense low-angle equatorial reflexions in human hair after treatment with nitric acid, these being further modified by heating in a solution of copper acetate. We wish to report new evidence of regularities in the chemical structure of α-keratins obtained by studying the X-ray diagram of Lincoln wool after reaction with various atoms and ions of high atomic number.
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References
Corey, R. B., and Wyckoff, R. G., J. Biol. Chem., 114, 407 (1936).
MacArthur, I., Nature, 152, 38 (1943).
Bear, R. S., and Rugo, H. J., Ann. N.Y. Acad. Sci., 53, 627 (1951).
Zahn, H. G., and Kohler, K., Z. Naturf., 5 B, 137 (1950).
Richards, H. R., and Speakman, J. B., J. Soc. Dyers Col., 71, 537 (1955).
Barr, T., and Speakman, J. B., J. Soc. Dyers Col., 60, 335 (1944).
Astbury, W. T., and Dawson, J. A. T., J. Soc. Dyers Col., 54, 6 (1938).
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FRASER, R., MACRAE, T. Evidence of Regularities in the Chemical Structure of α-Keratins. Nature 179, 732–733 (1957). https://doi.org/10.1038/179732a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/179732a0
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