Features of spin columns

Spin columns are largely used in molecular biology laboratories, as they allow the extraction of DNA commercially. They consist of a silica resin that binds DNA or RNA selectively according to the factors concerned with the extraction method. As a result, when you use a mini spin column to extract DNA or RNA, you will get only high-quality nucleic acid for cloning as well as long-range sequencing.

The purification of nucleic acids through a mini spin or a maxi spin column is considered a solid phase extraction technique. This is for the reason that these spin columns, whether they are mini or maxi, allow you to extract and purify nucleic acids easily and quickly. This extraction method mainly counts on the fact that DNA or RNA will bind to the solid silica phase under certain conditions, allowing you to extract nucleic acids of the highest quality.

Even before the nucleic acid methods used nowadays, it was known that in the existence of chaotropic agents, such as sodium perchlorate or sodium iodide, DNA binds to glass particles, silica, or to diatoms, which are unicellular algae, protect their cell walls with silica. This feature was employed to purify nucleic acids using silica beads or glass powder under alkaline conditions. Later, this was improved by making use of guanidinium hydrochloride or guanidinium thiocyanate as the chaotropic agent. Similarly, the use of glass beads was changed to silica gel.

Both the maxi spin columns, as well as mini spin columns were designed for safe and quick transfer. Nowadays, many suppliers offer outstanding quality of DNA spin columns, which allow users to purify nucleic acids rapidly in most biochemical and molecular applications. These spin columns are available in different sizes according to the extraction needs of users. Although a maxi spin or a mini spin column has the same capacity, they are available with different filters that are made of different materials, allowing you to use them in diverse biological applications.

These suppliers also offer dedicated extraction and purification kits to provide a quick spin-column-based technique to isolate sequencing-grade plasmid DNA. By making use of a single buffer, you will be capable of achieving bacterial cell resuspension, DNA binding, and lysis to purify nucleic acids within the minimum available time.

Some of the technical and salient features of a mini spin or a maxi spincolumn include:

·         They come with three different types of filters, such as Silicon, pulmonary embolus, and Glass.

·         Each of these filters comes with dissimilar bore sizes, ranging from two to eight layers.

·         A mini spin column is useful for different samples, including agarose gel or PCR products, E Coli, serum plasma, whole blood, and tissue.

Therefore, choosing the right filter will allow you to extract an assortment of DNAs, including DNA fragments, Plasmid DNA, Genomic DNA, and Viral RNA/DNA.

Above all, both spin Columns are so versatile, as they are designed from biocompatible polypropylene. They will also work well with all chromatography resins. They include a specific membrane that retains the resin as well as the sample in the column and prevents leak.