title: Extractions of High Quality RNA from the Seeds of Jerusalem Artichoke and Other Plant Species with High Levels of Starch and Lipid.
abstract: Jerusalem artichoke (Helianthus tuberosus L.) is an important tuber crop. However, Jerusalem artichoke seeds contain high levels of starch and lipid, making the extraction of high-quality RNA extremely difficult and the gene expression analysis challenging. This study was aimed to improve existing methods for extracting total RNA from Jerusalem artichoke dry seeds and to assess the applicability of the improved method in other plant species. Five RNA extraction methods were evaluated on Jerusalem artichoke seeds and two were modified. One modified method with the significant improvement was applied to assay seeds of diverse Jerusalem artichoke accessions, sunflower, rice, maize, peanut and marigold. The effectiveness of the improved method to extract total RNA from seeds was assessed using qPCR analysis of four selected genes. The improved method of Ma and Yang (2011) yielded a maximum RNA solubility and removed most interfering substances. The improved protocol generated 29 to 41 µg RNA/30 mg fresh weight. An A260/A280 ratio of 1.79 to 2.22 showed their RNA purity. Extracted RNA was effective for downstream applications such as first-stranded cDNA synthesis, cDNA cloning and qPCR. The improved method was also effective to extract total RNA from seeds of sunflower, rice, maize and peanut that are rich in polyphenols, lipids and polysaccharides.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biology, Faculty of Science, Khon Kaen University, Khon Kaen 40002, Thailand. mtanupat@yahoo.com.
authors.forename: Tanupat
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Mornkham
authors.affiliation: Department of Biology, Faculty of Science, Khon Kaen University, Khon Kaen 40002, Thailand. prepua@kku.ac.th.
authors.forename: Preeya Puangsomlee
authors.initials: PP
authors.lastname: Wangsomnuk
authors.affiliation: Plant Gene Resources of Canada, Saskatoon Research Centre, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, Saskatoon, SK S7N 0X2, Canada. yong-bi.fu@agr.gc.ca.
authors.forename: Yong-Bi
authors.initials: YB
authors.lastname: Fu
authors.affiliation: Department of Biology, Faculty of Science, Khon Kaen University, Khon Kaen 40002, Thailand. pinwan@kku.ac.th.
authors.forename: Pinich
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Wangsomnuk
authors.affiliation: Department of Plant Science and Agricultural Resources, Faculty of Agriculture, Khon Kaen University, Khon Kaen 40002, Thailand. sanun@kku.ac.th.
authors.forename: Sanun
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Jogloy
authors.affiliation: Department of Plant Science and Agricultural Resources, Faculty of Agriculture, Khon Kaen University, Khon Kaen 40002, Thailand. aran@kku.ac.th.
authors.forename: Aran
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Patanothai
keywords: Jerusalem artichoke; RNA extraction; TRIzol®; lipid; polysaccharide