RNA isolation

[DANIEL Y KIM]

In article <4h2ph8$cvv at mark.ucdavis.edu> ez022056 at rocky.ucdavis.edu (Edward Wang) writes:
>I am looking for a 'quick and easy" RNA isolation protocol.  I plan to do 
>RT-PCR on >20 different cell lines.  If anyone knows of such protocol, 
>please let me know...

The easiest RNA isolation method I know is the classic Acid Guanidinium 
method of P. Chomszynski and N. Sacchi.  This is the basis of most of the 
commercial quick RNA preps, and the reagents are easily prepared "at 
home".  Using mammalian cells in culture, I can easily isolate small 
amounts of RNA from dozens of different cultures (That is, microgram 
amounts rather than preparative amounts).  I have also used the same 
procedure on plant cells in suspension culture.  Others have shown that 
DNA can be isolated from the same prep by modifying the phenol "waste" 
afterward.

I believe P. Chomszynski now heads the company making "Trizol" reagent.

Daniel Kim
dkim at nmsu.edu