Premium
Bleach gel: A simple agarose gel for analyzing RNA quality
Author(s) -
Aranda Patrick S.,
LaJoie Dollie M.,
Jorcyk Cheryl L.
Publication year - 2012
Publication title -
electrophoresis
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.666
H-Index - 158
eISSN - 1522-2683
pISSN - 0173-0835
DOI - 10.1002/elps.201100335
Subject(s) - bleach , rna , agarose , agarose gel electrophoresis , electrophoresis , chromatography , chemistry , rna extraction , gel electrophoresis , microfluidics , dna , nanotechnology , biochemistry , materials science , organic chemistry , gene
RNA‐based applications requiring high‐quality, non‐degraded RNA are a foundational element of many research studies. As such, it is paramount that the integrity of experimental RNA is validated prior to cDNA synthesis or other downstream applications. In the absence of expensive equipment such as microfluidic electrophoretic devices, and as an alternative to the costly and time‐consuming standard formaldehyde gel, RNA quality can be quickly analyzed by adding small amounts of commercial bleach to TAE buffer‐based agarose gels prior to electrophoresis. In the presence of low concentrations of bleach, the secondary structure of RNA is denatured and potential contaminating RNases are destroyed. Because of this, the ‘bleach gel’ is a functional approach that addresses the need for an inexpensive and safe way to evaluate RNA integrity and will improve the ability of researchers to rapidly analyze RNA quality.