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Title: EXTRACTION OF TOTAL RNA FROM MELON MESOCARP TISSUE

Author
item Shellie, Krista
item Meyer, Robert
item MIRKOV, ERIK - TEXAS A&M EXTENSION CTR

Submitted to: HortScience
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 10/10/1996
Publication Date: N/A
Citation: N/A

Interpretive Summary: A rapid procedure to extract high quality total RNA from melon mesocarp tissue is presented in this manuscript. Data is presented showing that heating the RNA extraction buffer solution enhanced extracted RNA purity but resulted in degraded RNA. Data is also presented showing that inner, middle, and outer mesocarp tissue contained similar amounts of total RNA and that similar purity and recovery of total RNA was possible from retail purchased melons as from developmental regulation of gene expression in melon fruit.

Technical Abstract: We modified the extraction procedure of Pawlowski et al. (1994) for use with melon mesocarp tissue, and presented data showing that heating the RNA extraction buffer solution degraded the extracted RNA. Mesocarp tissue was obtained from three recently harvested and three retail purchased cantaloupe and honeydew melons. Equatorial mesocarp tissue was sectioned into 3 g samples of inner, middle, and outer tissue. Samples were finely ground in liquid nitrogen and either heated (80 deg C) or chilled in RNA extraction buffer. Data were subjected to a factorial analysis of variance with melon type, mesocarp tissue location, and melon acquisition as main effects and individual fruit considered replications. Significantly more total RNA was recovered from cantaloupe than from honeydew melons. Similar amounts of total RNA were recovered from inner, outer, and middle mesocarp sections. A similar amount of total RNA was recovered from melons purchased retail as from 30 day old, recently harvested melons.