Abstract
The effect of pH in the SDS-phenol extraction step on the extractability, messenger activity and the composition of RNA species of the poly (A)-containing RNA from the cotyledons of soybean seeds was examined. The amount of total RNA extracted from the cotyledons was almost the same under neutral and alkaline pH. However the content of the poly (A)-containing RNA was higher in the preparation obtained under alkaline pH than neutral pH. higher in the preparation obtained under alkaline pH than neutral pH. This result shows that the poly (A)-containing RNA was efficiently extracted from soybean seeds under alkaline pH. In a mRNA-dependent cell-free system derived from E. coli, there was no significant difference in the messenger activity of the poly (A)-containing RNA between the two preparations. The patterns of the poly (A)-containing RNAs of the two preparations were very similar to one another in the case of dry soybean seeds, while there was slight difference in the case of green soybean seeds. The poly (A)-containing RNA obtained under alkaline pH contained a higher ratio of large RNA species than that obtained under neutral pH. On the basis of these results, for a more efficient recovery of poly (A)-containing RNA, it seems better to employ alkaline pH in the phenol-extraction step for preparing poly (A)-containing RNA from soybean seeds.
