Nucleic acid methods are the techniques used to study

nucleic acid Nucleic acids are biopolymers, macromolecules, essential to all known forms of life. They are composed of nucleotides, which are the monomers made of three components: a 5-carbon sugar, a phosphate group and a nitrogenous base. The two main ...

s: DNA and

RNA Ribonucleic acid (RNA) is a polymeric molecule essential in various biological roles in coding, decoding, regulation and expression of genes. RNA and deoxyribonucleic acid ( DNA) are nucleic acids. Along with lipids, proteins, and carbohydra ...

Purification

DNA extraction The first isolation of deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) was done in 1869 by Friedrich Miescher. Currently, it is a routine procedure in molecular biology or forensic analyses. For the chemical method, many different kits are used for extraction, and s ...

* Phenol–chloroform extraction * Minicolumn purification *

RNA extraction RNA extraction is the purification of RNA from biological samples. This procedure is complicated by the ubiquitous presence of ribonuclease enzymes in cells and tissues, which can rapidly degrade RNA. Several methods are used in molecular biology t ...

Boom method Boom method (aka Boom nucleic acid extraction method) is a solid phase extraction method for isolating nucleic acid from a biological sample. This method is characterized by "absorbing the nucleic acids (NA) to the silica beads". Overview Boom me ...

Synchronous coefficient of drag alteration Synchronous coefficient of drag alteration (SCODA) is a biotechnology method for purifying, separating and/or concentrating bio-molecules. SCODA has the ability to separate molecules whose mobility (or drag) can be altered in sync with a driving fi ...

(SCODA) DNA purification

Quantification

*Abundance in weight: spectroscopic

nucleic acid quantitation In molecular biology, quantitation of nucleic acids is commonly performed to determine the average concentrations of DNA or RNA present in a mixture, as well as their purity. Reactions that use nucleic acids often require particular amounts and ...

*Absolute abundance in number:

real-time polymerase chain reaction A real-time polymerase chain reaction (real-time PCR, or qPCR) is a laboratory technique of molecular biology based on the polymerase chain reaction (PCR). It monitors the amplification of a targeted DNA molecule during the PCR (i.e., in real ...

(quantitative PCR) *High-throughput relative abundance:

DNA microarray A DNA microarray (also commonly known as DNA chip or biochip) is a collection of microscopic DNA spots attached to a solid surface. Scientists use DNA microarrays to measure the expression levels of large numbers of genes simultaneously or to ...

*High-throughput absolute abundance:

serial analysis of gene expression Serial Analysis of Gene Expression (SAGE) is a transcriptomic technique used by molecular biologists to produce a snapshot of the messenger RNA population in a sample of interest in the form of small tags that correspond to fragments of those tr ...

(SAGE) *Size:

gel electrophoresis Gel electrophoresis is a method for separation and analysis of biomacromolecules ( DNA, RNA, proteins, etc.) and their fragments, based on their size and charge. It is used in clinical chemistry to separate proteins by charge or size (IEF ...

Synthesis

*''De novo'':

oligonucleotide synthesis Oligonucleotide synthesis is the chemical synthesis of relatively short fragments of nucleic acids with defined chemical structure ( sequence). The technique is extremely useful in current laboratory practice because it provides a rapid and inexpen ...

*Amplification:

polymerase chain reaction The polymerase chain reaction (PCR) is a method widely used to rapidly make millions to billions of copies (complete or partial) of a specific DNA sample, allowing scientists to take a very small sample of DNA and amplify it (or a part of it) ...

(PCR)

Kinetics

* Multi-parametric surface plasmon resonance *

Dual-polarization interferometry Dual-polarization interferometry (DPI) is an analytical technique that probes molecular layers adsorbed to the surface of a waveguide using the evanescent wave of a laser beam. It is used to measure the conformational change in proteins, or oth ...

* Quartz crystal microbalance with dissipation monitoring (QCM-D)

Gene function

RNA interference RNA interference (RNAi) is a biological process in which RNA molecules are involved in sequence-specific suppression of gene expression by double-stranded RNA, through translational or transcriptional repression. Historically, RNAi was known by o ...

Other

* Bisulfite sequencing * DNA sequencing *

Expression cloning Expression cloning is a technique in DNA cloning that uses expression vectors to generate a library of clones, with each clone expressing one protein. This ''expression library'' is then screened for the property of interest and clones of interes ...

Fluorescence in situ hybridization Fluorescence ''in situ'' hybridization (FISH) is a molecular cytogenetic technique that uses fluorescent probes that bind to only particular parts of a nucleic acid sequence with a high degree of sequence complementarity. It was developed by ...

Lab-on-a-chip A lab-on-a-chip (LOC) is a device that integrates one or several laboratory functions on a single integrated circuit (commonly called a "chip") of only millimeters to a few square centimeters to achieve automation and high-throughput screening. ...

Comparison of nucleic acid simulation software This is a list of notable computer programs that are used for nucleic acid Nucleic acids are biopolymers, macromolecules, essential to all known forms of life. They are composed of nucleotides, which are the monomers made of three components: ...

Northern blot The northern blot, or RNA blot,Gilbert, S. F. (2000) Developmental Biology, 6th Ed. Sunderland MA, Sinauer Associates. is a technique used in molecular biology research to study gene expression by detection of RNA (or isolated mRNA) in a sample.Ke ...

Nuclear run-on A nuclear run-on assay is conducted to identify the genes that are being transcribed at a certain time point. Approximately one million cell nuclei are isolated and incubated with labeled nucleotides, and genes in the process of being transcribe ...

assay *

Radioactivity in the life sciences Radioactivity is generally used in life sciences for highly sensitive and direct measurements of biological phenomena, and for visualizing the location of biomolecules radiolabelled with a radioisotope. All atoms exist as stable or unstable iso ...

Southern blot A Southern blot is a method used in molecular biology for detection of a specific DNA sequence in DNA samples. Southern blotting combines transfer of electrophoresis-separated DNA fragments to a filter membrane and subsequent fragment detec ...

* Differential centrifugation (sucrose gradient) *

Toeprinting assay The toeprinting assay, also known as the primer extension inhibition assay, is a method used in molecular biology that allows one to examine the interactions between messenger RNA and ribosomes or RNA-binding proteins. It is different from the ...

*Several

bioinformatics Bioinformatics () is an interdisciplinary field that develops methods and software tools for understanding biological data, in particular when the data sets are large and complex. As an interdisciplinary field of science, bioinformatics combin ...

methods, as seen in list of RNA structure prediction software

References

External links

Protocols for Recombinant DNA Isolation, Cloning, and Sequencing
{{Molecular biology Genetics techniques Molecular biology Nucleic acids