I am looking up ways to decontaminate glass bottles from RNase and I came across several different methods, but have a lot of doubts about practicality.
One comment under this post (https://www.researchgate.net/post/Do_you_think_RNaseZap_or_RNase_away_spray_is_enough_for_Benchtop_plasticware_and_glassware_decontamination_when_working_with_RNA) suggests either soaking in ethanol for >1 hour (100% ethanol?), or baking to 180°C, or 3% hydrogen peroxide for 15 minutes.
FAQ of pages regarding products like RNase ZAP suggest it is sufficient to spray with the decontaminating solution and rinsing with nuclease-free water. No soaking times are specified in this case.
I also came across this post (https://pipettejockey.com/2016/05/06/make-your-own-nucleasenucleic-acid-decontaminating-solution/) providing a recipe for a decontaminating solution and suggesting the following: "Glass and parts can be set to soak in straight or diluted (2-3X) decon mix, then washed as normal and rinsed with distilled water". Which leads me to ask, how much solution will I need to use to soak a 100 ml glass bottle? Do I need to fill it up? And do I "wash as normal" with tap water before the final rinsing with distilled water?
In conclusion, I would like to ask what is, in your experience, the most practical and effective method.
Thank you if you will want to contribute to the discussion!
Several methods work to avoid nucleases and you can take your pick.
1) If you want to avoid chemical contaminants, baking for 4 hours at 200 °C is the easiest for freshly washed glassware.
2) Most plastics can be cleaned off by soaking in 3% hydrogen peroxide for 15 min or 0.1 M sodium hydroxide for 1 hour. Rinse with nuclease-free water afterwards. Note that hydrogen peroxide is corrosive to many metals. So do not use it for electrophoresis chambers as it will corrode the electrodes.
3) Lab surfaces can be wiped easily with RNaseZAP, DNA-Off, Decon, etc. They usually are mixtures of potassium/sodium hydroxide and detergents.
4) Solutions can be treated with diethylpyrocarbonate (DEPC) but it is quite toxic. It is deactivated in the autoclave but even small remains can inhibit many assays. Better autoclave DEPC-treated solutions twice. Best practice is to start from nuclease-free chemicals and water to make up solutions.
Good luck!
Dear Maria Silvia Morlino,
do as Christoph Schweingruber suggests. Bake and you will be fine.
Best
Boris
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