Isolation of Total RNA from just about anything

[fzestabr at chip.ucdavis.edu]

Dear Anthony

Concerning your RNA gel problems

My  suggestion: if all you want to do is see the RNA then run a 
nondenaturing gel.

Just to verify my RNA samples I routinely run them on 0.5X TAE gels, 1% 
agarose and then stain the gels after electrophoresis in the same manner 
as DNA gels. You should be able to clearly see your RNA marker (I use 3 
ug of the BRL ladder) and RNA sample ( I can clearly see the ribosomal 
RNA bands if I use 4 ug of rna). Of course all solutions are made RNAse 
free. Before loading my RNA I generally heat it to 90-100 C in the 
loading buffer and then sit it on ice to cool. I couldn't say if this is 
really necessary or not, it is just something I do.