A column-based rapid method for the simultaneous isolation of DNA, RNA, miRNA and proteins

Abstract

In the 21st century, systems biology is a holistic approach to understand life by the cross-talk study between the genome, Rnome and proteome of a cell. We describe a column-based rapid method for the simultaneous extraction of DNA, RNA, miRNA (microRNA) and proteins from the same experimental sample without prior fractionation, which allows a direct correlation between genomic, epigenomic, transcriptomic and proteomic data. This method provides a simple and effective way to analyse each of these biomolecules without affecting yield and quality. We also show that isolated biomolecules are of the highest purity and compatible for all the respective downstream applications, such as PCR amplification, RT-PCR (reverse transcription-PCR), real-time PCR, reverse Northern blotting, SDS/PAGE and Western blot analysis. The buffers and reagents used in this method are optimized extensively to achieve the cost effective and reliable procedure to separate the functional biomolecules of the cell.

Keywords: guanidine thiocynate; miRNA; nucleic acid isolation; protein; real-time PCR; reverse Northern blotting.