Electrophoretic extraction-concentration of ribonucleic acid from agarose-acrylamide composite gels

A simple technique for the electrophoretic extraction of RNA, under constant monitoring by bromphenol blue line, in a concentrated form from agarose-acrylamide composite gels run according to A. C. Peacock and C. W. Dingman, (Biochemistry 7, 668–674, (1968)) has been developed. Typically, the extraction time from 5 gel slices/tube containing 56 μg of RNA was 3.5 h, and the maximum concentration of the recovered RNA was 0.37 mg/ml with a total recovery of more than 90%. The desired scale can be adjusted by manipulating the number of tubes or number of slices.