Isolating RNA from the Soil

Abstract

Next generation sequencing has allowed for the analysis and ability to identify the microbial communities present in the environment. While DNA extraction from environments (such as soil) have provided a wealth of knowledge regarding microbial communities there are drawbacks that one encounters when using DNA as opposed to RNA. RNA allows for the determination of the identity of the microbes that are active and present at a particular time point and thus gives a clear picture of what these microbes are actually doing at a specific point in time and under a set of conditions. Extracting RNA from soil is challenging due to the inherent inhibitors present in the soil such as humic acids. Here we describe modifications to the MoBio RNA PowerSoilTM total RNA isolation kit to reproducively extract total RNA from the soil.