Quality control on oil palm RNA samples for efficient genomic downstream applications

Quality control (QC) is primordial for determining the efficiency in any downstream genomic applications. There are several steps in the verification of the quality of RNA samples destined for genomic studies. The aim of this research was to determine whether RNA should be discarded at the level of the field lab if it fails preliminary quality control using Optical Density (OD) measurements. In this study, all samples were submitted to rigorous quality control in every stage of work. RNA samples showing poor OD values still gave excellent results in downstream QC and genomic applications. At the end of the quality control exercise, it was observed that the original samples were the same and had not undergone any deterioration along the different stages of handling and manipulation. This paper shows the different and most important stages of quality control on RNA samples (RIN) for an effective down stream application in genomic studies. RNA samples should not be discarded based on preliminary QC from our field labs.