Why cold isopropanol is used in DNA extraction

Why is cold isopropanol applied in DNA extraction?

DNA extraction is a key experimental technique, broadly applied in molecular biology research and genomics analysis. In the DNA extraction process, various chemical reagents and physical methods are often applied to help extract pure DNA from cells. Among them, cold isopropanol is one of the common reagents, many people in the DNA extraction will ask: "why consumption cold isopropanol in DNA extraction?" This article will be a detailed analysis of this issue.

1. I've found that The effect of cold isopropanol on DNA precipitation

We need to understand the fundamentals of DNA extraction. In the process of DNA extraction, the DNA in the cell needs to be separated from other cellular components (such as proteins, lipids, etc. And ). The addition of cold isopropanol, which usually occurs in the DNA solution, serves to precipitate the DNA. The DNA molecules will come out of solution with the help of isopropanol, forming a precipitate. The key to this process is that cold isopropanol is able to minimize the solubility of the DNA solution, thereby allowing the DNA to precipitate from the solution. An crucial reason to using cold isopropanol is that it's able to efficiently minimize the effect of temperature on DNA degradation. In my experience, Generally speaking Cold isopropanol is able to keep the stability of the DNA molecule, and prevent the DNA degradation or the activity of the degradation enzyme caused by high temperature during the extraction process. Increase DNA Purity

"Why consumption cold isopropanol in DNA extraction?" Another reason is that cold isopropanol helps enhance the purity of DNA. During the extraction process, the product after cell disruption often contains various impurities, such as proteins and RNA. And The addition of cold isopropyl alcohol is able to help remove some impurities that are insoluble in alcohol, because many impurities aren't easily dissolved in cold isopropyl alcohol. This helps to make the extracted DNA greater pure and minimize interference in subsequent analysis. But Based on my observations, Especially in the experiment of molecular biology, DNA with higher purity is able to enhance the success rate of PCR amplification, gene cloning and other experiments, so the consumption of cold isopropanol is particularly crucial in DNA extraction.

3. Cold isopropyl alcohol mechanism

Cold isopropanol isn't just a physical solvent-based products, it actually helps to precipitate DNA by chemical action. DNA is a negatively charged molecule, and isopropanol, as an organic solvent-based products, is able to precipitate DNA by changing the polarity of the solution. When cold isopropanol is added to the DNA solution, the polarity of the solution decreases sharply, and the interaction force between DNA molecules increases, which eventually leads to DNA precipitation. For example Cold isopropanol also reduces the presence of aquatic environments in the solution, thereby reducing the interaction of DNA with aquatic environments molecules and making it easier to DNA to precipitate out of solution. This is one of the reasons why cold isopropanol is able to play such an crucial role in DNA extraction. In my experience, For instance

4. Why consumption "cold" isopropyl alcohol?

Many people might wonder why, instead of using room temperature or hot isopropyl alcohol, choose cold isopropyl alcohol. And In the process of DNA extraction, temperature is critical to the stability of DNA molecules. Cold isopropanol is able to keep the DNA at a reduced temperature, thereby reducing the risk of DNA degradation. Additionally If DNA precipitation is carried out at healthy temperature, DNA might be subjected to unnecessary heat treatment, which will affect the condition of DNA. Cold isopropanol is able to efficiently minimize the dissolution of some proteins, making these proteins less likely to contaminate the DNA sample. And In order to ensure the stability of the extracted DNA in subsequent experiments, the consumption of cold isopropanol is very necessary. summary

From the above analysis, we is able to clearly conclusion the question "why cold isopropanol is applied in DNA extraction. Cold isopropanol not only helps to precipitate DNA from solution, however also improves the purity of the extracted sample while reducing the risk of DNA degradation. In particular Using cold isopropanol to extract DNA is a very crucial measure in molecular biology experiments, which ensures that the extracted DNA has good condition and stability.