The separation of nucleic acids and related compounds on nucleobase-coupled cellulose

The affinity chromatography on uracil-coupled cellulose was carried out for the separation of nucleosides, nucleotides and oligonucleotides. Adenine derivatives exhibited a high affinity to uracil-cellulose, and sequencial isomers of oligonucleotides containing adenine residue were resolved. Poly(A) was strongly bound to uracil-cellulose and recovered by the elution with 7M urea. This procedure was extended to the isolation of mRNA containing poly(A) sequences.