Enhanced sensitivity RNA gel loading buffer that enables efficient RNA separation on native gels

Abstract

RNA gel analysis is essential for quality assessment of RNA preparations for subsequent analysis such as microarrays and real-time PCRs. The routinely used standard electrophoresis of RNA through formaldehyde-containing agarose gels is not only labor-intensive and time-consuming, but also involves sizeable quantities of hazardous materials. Above all, it is not sensitive, requiring more than 1 µg of RNA for the assay. Current gene expression profiling with microarrays and real-time PCR often involves limiting amounts of RNA. It is therefore important to have a more sensitive way to analyze RNA. Here we report an improved ethidium bromide-based RNA gel analysis system with our Superload buffer that increases sensitivity to 12.5 ng of total RNA and allows RNA analysis on a regular native Tris-acetate EDTA (TAE) agarose gel.