Ode to Oligo(dT): Oligo(dT) Takes on a Variety of Faces in Kits for the Purification of mRNA

Date: May 25, 1998 Author: Laura DeFrancesco Charts How many different ways are there to isolate messenger RNA (mRNA)? You can bind it to oligo(dT) cellulose in a slurry, bind it to oligo(dT) on columns, bind it to oligo(dT) attached to latex beads, or bind it to oligo(dT) on magnetic particles. Get the picture? Oligo(dT) is clearly the key to mRNA isolations. And why is that? Considering that mRNA is only one to two percent of the total RNA of a cell, and to make matters worse, is heterogeneo

Written byLaura Defrancesco
| 14 min read

Register for free to listen to this article
Listen with Speechify
0:00
14:00
Share

Date: May 25, 1998 Author: Laura DeFrancesco Charts How many different ways are there to isolate messenger RNA (mRNA)? You can bind it to oligo(dT) cellulose in a slurry, bind it to oligo(dT) on columns, bind it to oligo(dT) attached to latex beads, or bind it to oligo(dT) on magnetic particles. Get the picture? Oligo(dT) is clearly the key to mRNA isolations. And why is that? Considering that mRNA is only one to two percent of the total RNA of a cell, and to make matters worse, is heterogeneous in size, without oligo(dT), and the polyA tails on the messages to which it binds, it's hard to imagine how mRNAs would ever be isolated. In fact, before oligo(dT) came into being, only messages that were either very abundant, like ß-globin in reticulocytes, or very unusual, like the messages for silk fibroin proteins that have an unusual base sequence, had been ...

Interested in reading more?

Become a Member of

The Scientist Logo
Receive full access to digital editions of The Scientist, as well as TS Digest, feature stories, more than 35 years of archives, and much more!
Already a member? Login Here

Meet the Author

Published In

Share
Image of small blue creatures called Nergals. Some have hearts above their heads, which signify friendship. There is one Nergal who is sneezing and losing health, which is denoted by minus one signs floating around it.
June 2025, Issue 1

Nergal Networks: Where Friendship Meets Infection

A citizen science game explores how social choices and networks can influence how an illness moves through a population.

View this Issue
An illustration of green lentiviral particles.

Maximizing Lentivirus Recovery

cytiva logo
Unraveling Complex Biology with Advanced Multiomics Technology

Unraveling Complex Biology with Five-Dimensional Multiomics

Element Bioscience Logo
Resurrecting Plant Defense Mechanisms to Avoid Crop Pathogens

Resurrecting Plant Defense Mechanisms to Avoid Crop Pathogens

Twist Bio 
The Scientist Placeholder Image

Seeing and Sorting with Confidence

BD

Products

The Scientist Placeholder Image

Agilent Unveils the Next Generation in LC-Mass Detection: The InfinityLab Pro iQ Series

agilent-logo

Agilent Announces the Enhanced 8850 Gas Chromatograph

parse-biosciences-logo

Pioneering Cancer Plasticity Atlas will help Predict Response to Cancer Therapies