Use of aurintricarboxylic acid as an inhibitor of nucleases during nucleic acid isolation

Aurintricarboxylic acid (ATA) is a general inhibitor of nucleases. ATA has been shown to inhibit the following enzymes in vitro: DNAse I, RNAse A, S1 nuclease, exonuclease III, and restriction endonucleases Sal I, Bam HI, Pst I and Sma I. The observed inhibition is consistent with the proposal by Blumenthal and Landers (BBRC 55, 680, 1973) that most nucleic acid binding proteins will be sensitive to ATA. The action of ATA as a nuclease inhibitor can be used to advantage in the isolation of cellular nucleic acids.