Isoamyl alcohol (Isopentyl Alcohol, 3-Methylbutanol)

Isoamyl alcohol (Isopentyl Alcohol, 3-Methylbutanol): This product is designated as Molecular Biology grade and is suitable for use in nucleic acid purification. 3-Methyl-1-butanol, commonly called isoamyl alcohol,is routinely used in molecular biology, notably in the purification of DNA. It is widely used in conjunction with phenol and chloroform, for the removal of proteins from the nucleic acid solutions by extraction. The addition of chloroform and isoamyl alcohol in the extraction protocol deals with two issues that the use of phenol alone does not completely address: Isoamyl alcohol helps to inhibit RNase activity, which phenol does not completely inhibit,Isoamyl alcohol helps to prevent the solubilization in the phenol phase of long RNA molecules with long poly(A) portions. In addition, isoamyl alcohol reduces foaming during the extraction process. Isoamyl alcohol may also be used in the extraction of ethidium bromide from DNA solutions and in the radiolabeling of RNA transcripts in nuclei that have been isolated from tissue. Isoamyl alcohol is often used in the HPLC analysis of various pharmaceuticals and metabolites. It has been used in the analysis of oxidized and reduced pyridine nucleotides and adenylates in organic phenol extracts from mitochondria. A phenol:chloroform:isoamyl alcohol procedure for the extraction of chloroplast DNA that avoids density gradient differential centrifugation has been published. A protocol for the isolation of mRNA from a thermophilic cyanobacterium that incorporates a phenol:chloroform:isoamyl alcohol mixture has been described.