Current methods are not generally suitable for the quantitative analysis of nucleobases in cellular material and more complex matrices that are often encountered with environmental samples. Simple and reliable quantitative methods for nucleobase analysis in purified ribonucleic acid (RNA) and deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA), microorganisms, and environmental samples are presented. Novel microwave-assisted vapor phase and liquid phase hydrolyses with HCl (6 mol L -1 ) were developed for the analysis of nucleobases in soluble and particulate samples, respectively. Optimal conditions for the release of purines (130°C, 10 min) and pyrimidines (160°C, 40 min) from DNA and RNA were applicable to both the vapor phase and liquid phase hydrolysis. Residual hydrochloric acid in hydrolysate can be removed easily by drying under a stream of nitrogen gas. Nucleobases were separated and quantified using high performance liquid chromatography with diode array detection (HPLC-DAD). The limit of detection for primary nucleobases ranged from 20 to 32 nmol L -1 . Total hydrolysable nucleobases were analyzed in salmon testes DNA, yeast RNA, cultures of marine microalgae and cyanobacteria, and suspended particles from an estuary. The RNA and DNA contents and RNA/DNA ratios in cellular material were estimated from analyses of hydrolysable nucleobases.
AcknowledgmentsWe thank Si Chen for the collection and preparation of estuarine suspended particles. We thank the editor and anonymous reviewers for helpful comments on the manuscript. This research was supported by US National Science Foundation (Grant 0850653) and National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant 41071301).DOI 10.4319/lom.2012.10.608 Limnol. Oceanogr.: Methods 10, 2012, 608-616 © 2012, by the American Society of Limnology and Oceanography, Inc.
LIMNOLOGY and
OCEANOGRAPHY: METHODSand some of their derivatives, but the quantitative release of nucleobases from nucleic acids remains challenging. Various methods have been used for the hydrolysis of nucleic acids, but it is still difficult to recover high yields of nucleobases using published methods. The commonly used hydrolysis protocols for the determination of purines and pyrimidines in DNA are 98% formic acid at 175°C for 30 min (Vischer and Chargaff 1948;Wyatt 1951) and 72% perchloric acid at 100°C for 1 h (Marshak and Vogel 1951;Wyatt 1951). Several attempts were made to use these hydrolyses for the analysis of RNA (Narurkar and Sahasrabudhe 1957;Vischer and Chargaff 1948;Wyatt 1951), but they were largely unsuccessful as were early attempts to develop hydrolyses with hydrochloric acid (Smith and Markham 1950;Vischer and Chargaff 1948). There have been surprisingly few improvements in methods for the hydrolysis of RNA in the years since these earlier studies (Fan et al. 2007).In the present study, novel methods were developed for the hydrolysis and analysis of nucleobases in organisms and environmental samples. Two separate hydrolyses with HCl were developed for the efficient release of purines and pyrimidine...