Plant rRNAs

[chriso at dfrc.wisc.edu]

Speaking of plant rRNA's : I have recently found that my universal 
bacteria probe (EUB 338) is crossreacting with some plant RNA, 
specifically spinach.  This is causing some consternation among us, 
since we are probing microbial RNA samples from cow rumens with our 
species specific bacteria probes.  Since there definatly is plant 
material in our original rumen samples from which we isolate bacteria 
RNA, the fact that our bacteria probe reacts with plant RNA is 
worrisome.  I assume its hybing with the chlorplast  23S and 16S 
units.  We are trying to deal with this, but any more ideas would be 
helpful.

Thanks in advance, Chris Odt