Molecular-grade glycogen is widely used to recover nanogram or picogram quantities of DNA and RNA across molecular biology applications in the life sciences. As a result, its purity is critical to obtain reliable results. Using agarose gel electrophoresis, we detected pg/µL (DNA) to ng/µL (RNA) concentrations of nucleic acid in two of the nine glycogen samples obtained from commercial suppliers. Denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis of 16S rRNA gene PCR-amplified products indicated that an additional two samples contained detectable contamination. We also tested a synthetic polymer co-precipitant, linear polyacrylamide (LPA); none of the four samples tested with LPA were detectably contaminated. The partial 16S rRNA gene sequence associated with the contaminated samples of the shellfish-derived glycogen was nearly identical to the sequence of Actinobacteria lwoffii, which has been isolated from mussels previously. By testing the recovery of low-nanogram amounts of DNA with multiple precipitants and simulated experimental conditions, we demonstrated that LPA was a preferable co-precipitant for sensitive protocols.

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Vol. 47, No. 6

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History

Received 27 May 2009

Accepted 23 September 2009

Published online 25 April 2018

Published in print December 2009

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by a Discovery Grant to J.D.N. from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC). We thank colleagues and collaborators who have shared research results affected by contaminated glycogen. Hataichanok Sae Yang, Taybah Bhatti, and Brendan J. McConkey are thanked for helpful discussions. We appreciate the contribution of several companies for providing glycogen and LPA samples free of charge.

Competing interests

The authors declare no competing interests.

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