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Updated: Jun 5, 2025
An Improved Method of RNA Isolation from Loblolly Pine P. taeda L. and Other Conifer Species
Published on: February 22, 2010
An efficient and effective RNA extraction protocol for ferns
Jessie A Pelosi1, Ruth Davenport1, W Brad Barbazuk1,2
1Department of Biology University of Florida Gainesville 32611 Florida USA.
Premise:
The extraction of high-quality RNA is the critical first step for the analysis of gene expression and gene space. This remains particularly challenging in plants, and especially in ferns, where the disruption of the cell wall and separation of organic compounds from nucleic acids is not trivial.
Methods:
We developed a cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB)-based RNA extraction protocol that consistently performs well across a large phylogenetic breadth of ferns-a lineage of plants high in secondary compounds-and in an array of tissue types. Two alternative options (precipitation vs. clean-up without intermediate precipitation) are presented, both of which yield high-quality RNA extracts with optical density (OD) ratios of OD 260/280 = 1.9-2.1 and OD 260/230 > 1.6, and RNA integrity numbers >7.
Conclusions:
This study presents an efficient protocol for the extraction of high-quality RNA from multiple tissues and across the fern phylogeny, a clade of plants that still lags behind other major lineages in the development of genomic resources. We hope that this method can be used to help facilitate the closing of this gap.
