Isolation of high quality RNA from embryonic kidney and cells

All the mRNAs within a cell and their relative levels are indicative of gene expression within that cell, which is essential for its structure and function in its differentiated state. Therefore, methods for the identification of the specific mRNAs and the quantitation of their levels are invaluable tools for understanding gene expression. Due to high endogenous RNase activity within virtually all living cells, the isolation of good quality RNA with minimal degradation is not a trivial task. This protocol outlines a tried and tested methodology for isolating high quality RNA from embryonic kidneys for various applications including microarray analysis and quantitative reverse transcription PCR (qRT-PCR).