An efficient method for total RNA extraction from peanut seeds

Most of conventional RNA extraction methods failed to extract highly pure and integral RNA from peanut seeds because peanut seeds are extremely rich in lipids, proteins, polysaccharides, and phenolic compounds. Here, we describe a new method, named Peanut Improved Modified RNA extraction method (PIMRNAext), using SDS, Tris-saturated phenol, NaCl, and sarkosyl during the extraction process, which are particularly successful for total RNA extraction from lipid- and polysaccharide-rich materials. The proposed PIMRNAext method is simple and fast. It requires only conventional reagents and is completed within 2 h. Using PIMRNAext gives very good yields of high quality peanut RNA. This method is about ten times more efficient than conventional methods, and the RNA produced by it is compatible with further molecular biology experiments, such as RT-PCR. We propose to use the PIMRNAext method to extract RNA from peanuts and peanut-like plant species not only for RT-PCR, but also for most molecular biology techniques that need copies of pure RNA, such as microarray or cDNA library construction.