Phenol - (Jan/26/2014 )
Does anyone has an idea about affecting low temperature against phenol in DNA extraction?
Normally, I have used phenol:chloroform:isoamyl alcohol with 4c centrifuge according to my protocol? But I wonder, what is the advantage of 4c? because I know phenol in low temperate evaporated.
I can only answer this with... Phenol can oxidize at it ages (this is a slow process) and keeping the solution at 4C increases its lifetime. I would also say that storing the above solution at 4C keeps the isoamyl alcohol in solution which is necessary to prevent excessive foaming of your phenol/chloroform during mixing.
Edit: One more thing... Going from 4C to a RT centrifuge may cause the cap to open during spinning.
I once used a protocol where it was centrifuged in a "normal" centrifuge at room temperature and it worked too. Therefore yours might be an overcautious protocol.