Magnetic nanoparticles: a promising component in RNA extraction process

Magnetic nanoparticles separation technology is a method for quick and easy extraction biomolecules such as proteins, DNA and RNA. The present work describes total RNA isolation procedure from transformed rose petals in our laboratory using magnetic nanoparticles as a solid phase absorbant. Petals are the main sources of secondary metabolites, i.e. carotenoids, anthocyanins, flavonoids and phenolic compounds, which interfere with nucleic acids isolation. The physical basis of this technique relies on the interaction with external magnetic fields, and therefore the magnetic moment of the particles and nucleic acid plays the main role. The present work showed that, quantity and quality of extracted RNA by magnetic procedure were higher than that of the conventional method in all tested samples. Additionally, preparing RNA samples, take less than 50 minutes as against several hours taken by common protocols. Furthermore, successful RNA isolation was found to follow-up reactions such as PCR amplification and restriction endonuclease digestion especially in colorful petals. The solid-phase extraction method for the isolation of RNA in this research offers several advantages over the conventional methods using phenol-chloroform extraction: it is convenient to use, rapid, time-saving and reducing the consumption of toxic organic solvents; therefore, making it more amenable to automation.