Preparation and use of polyphosphate-modified zirconia for purification of nucleic acids and proteins

Polyphosphates of chain lengths between 3 and 100 were coupled to porous zirconia particles and used for affinity chromatography of nucleic acids and proteins. It is demonstrated that single-stranded RNA and DNA are strongly retained on the polyphosphate-modified zirconia support, while double-stranded DNA is only weakly bound if at all. Protein separation on this packing can be performed by applying both high-performance liquid chromatography and batch procedures. The results show that polyphosphate-modified zirconia is a useful affinity packing for immobilization and purification of biomacromolecules.