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Analytical ultracentrifugation is one of the most powerful solution techniques for the study of macromolecular interactions, to define the number and stoichiometry of complexes formed, and to measure affinities ranging from very strong to very weak and repulsive. Building on the data analysis tools described in the volume Sedimentation Velocity Analytical Ultracentrifugation: Discrete Species and Size-Distributions of Macromolecules and Particles, and the experimental and instrumental aspects in the first volume Basic Principles of Analytical Ultracentrifugation, the present volume Sedimentation Velocity Analytical Ultracentrifugation: Interacting Systems is devoted to the theory and practical data analysis of dynamically coupled sedimentation processes. This volume is designed to fill a gap in biophysical methodology to provide a framework that builds on the fundamentals of the highly developed traditional methods of analytical ultracentrifugation, updated with current methodology and from a viewpoint of modern applications. It will be an invaluable resource for researchers and graduate students interested in the application of analytical ultracentrifugation in the study of interacting systems, such as biological macromolecules, multi-protein complexes, polymers, or nanoparticles.

A follow-up to the experimental and instrumental aspects described in Basic Principles of Analytical Ultracentrifugation, the volume Sedimentation Velocity Analytical Ultracentrifugation: Discrete Species and Size-Distributions of Macromolecules and Particles describes the theory and practice of data analysis. Mathematical models for the sedimentation process and the evolution of detected signals are developed in a comprehensive framework, jointly with the description of current and historical strategies for how to extract from noisy experimental data the physical parameters of interest, such as size, mass, and shape, composition, and polydispersity of sedimenting particles. The methods are extensively illustrated, and supported with practical applications, as well as cross-references where to find the methods in the public domain software SEDFIT and SEDPHAT. The systems covered are discrete or polydisperse mixtures of sedimenting molecules or particles in dilute solution, such as proteins and other biomolecules and their stable complexes, man-made polymers, and nanoparticles, observed in different optical systems. A useful reference for researchers and graduate students of macromolecular disciplines, these methods form the essential foundation for the analysis of dynamic interacting systems, which are covered in the volume Sedimentation Velocity Analytical Ultracentrifugation: Interacting Systems. Software referenced in the book is available for download at: https://sedfitsedphat.nibib.nih.gov/default.aspx

Analytical ultracentrifugation (AUC) can supply rich information on the mass, shape, size distribution, solvation, and composition of macromolecules and nanoscopic particles. It also provides a detailed view of their reversible single- or multi-component interactions over a wide range of affinities. Yet this powerful technique has been hard to mast