FIG. 2.

Pre-pretreatment unit sample analysis. Lane I, E. Coli lysate before loading; lane II, sample after pretreatment unit; lane III, E. coli lysate purified with Qiagen total RNA purification kit. (a) Total protein profile of the samples characterized by acrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE). An aliquot of each sample were electrophoresed in 12% gel and the protein bands were visualized with Coomassie stain. No protein bands are discernible in the output of our pretreatment unit. (b) Long nucleic acids were characterized on 1% Agarose gel with MOPS buffer (ran on 100 V for 60 min). Most long nucleic acids in the sample are removed at the output of our pretreatment unit. (c) Short nucleic acids were characterized on a 3% agarose gel with sodium boric acid buffer, ran for 10 min at 300 V. The red arrow is likely a transfer-RNA band in the output from our pretreatment unit. Most short nucleic acids present in the original sample have been recovered after our pretreatment unit. Our unit appears to perform significantly better that the commercial kit in our hands.