How is RNA isolated?

Posted May 18, 2020

Answer

RNA extraction is the purification of RNA from biological samples. Several methods are used in molecular biology to isolate RNA from samples, including guanidinium thiocyanate-phenol-chloroform extraction, glass fiber filters based on silica technology, magnetic beads assisted purification, as well as column chromatography. Among these methods, guanidinium thiocyanate-phenol-chloroform extraction, using commercially available TRIzol (TRI reagent), is the most common one, which isolates RNA from DNA and proteins based on their different solubilities in aqueous and organic solutions.

Additional resources

Cell Navigator™ Live Cell RNA Imaging Kit *Green Fluorescence*

StrandBrite™ Green Fluorimetric RNA Quantitation Kit *High Selectivity*

Patel, P. G., Selvarajah, S., Guérard, K.-P., Bartlett, J. M. S., Lapointe, J., Berman, D. M., … Park, P. C. (2017). Reliability and performance of commercial RNA and DNA extraction kits for FFPE tissue cores. PLOS ONE, 12(6), e0179732. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0179732

Rio, D. C., Ares, M., Hannon, G. J., & Nilsen, T. W. (2010). Purification of RNA Using TRIzol (TRI Reagent). Cold Spring Harbor Protocols, 2010(6), pdb.prot5439–pdb.prot5439. doi:10.1101/pdb.prot5439