Determination of traces of RNA in submicrogram amounts of single‐ or double‐stranded DNAs by means of nucleic acid‐modified electrodes

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Abstract
Recently we have utilized the advantages of nucleic acid‐modified mercury electrodes to develop a method capable of determining RNA traces in samples of double‐stranded DNA [1]. It was, however, impossible to determine less than 10 % of RNA in a single‐stranded DNA sample. Here we show that the DNA voltammetric signals can be selectively suppressed by precipitation with [Co(NH3)6]3+ while the signal of any RNA digested with RNase A is not influenced. Following from our studies we proposed a voltammetric method for determination of less than 1% of RNA in microgram samples of single‐ and double‐stranded DNA.