Table 1.
A comparison of different RNA isolation procedures
| Method | Average Yield (μg/g of dry tissue) | Standard Deviation of Yield (μg/g) | A260/280 | A260/230 | Estimated extraction time for 1 mg of total RNA (hours) | Estimated cost for extracting 1 mg of total RNA (Euro) |
| Spectrum plant total RNA kit | 31.2 | 22.4 | 2.01-2.05 | 2.00-2.27 | 54 | 979 |
| TRIzol reagent | 162.1 | 52.7 | 1.47-1.65 | 0.42-0.91 | 5 | 235 |
| Dong & Dunstan | 126.3 | 33.1 | 1.57-1.68 | 0.27-0.41 | 9 | 19 |
| CTAB | 69.3 | 19.4 | 1.40-1.56 | 0.58-1.01 | 9 | 27 |
| CTAB + RNeasy | 8.6 | 5.8 | 2.22-2.24 | 2.50-2.93 | 62 | 286 |
Shown is the method along with average nucleotide yield from starting material (μg/g) and the standard deviation from at least six extractions. The A260/280 and A260/230 ratios provide insight as to the quality of the resultant nucleotides - an extraction of sufficient quality for cDNA library construction should have ratio quality values of approximately 2.0. Also shown are estimates of time (h) and costs (Euro) required for the extraction of 1 mg of total RNA - this is a typically required amount for mRNA purification for cDNA library synthesis or for genome resequencing techniques.