Methods and tools for purifying nucleic acids and using polymerized tubulin

Abstract

The present invention relates to the field of nucleic acid purification. In particular, it relates to methods and tools for purifying nucleic acids in a sample; which are compatible with high-throughput sequencing and diagnosis. The inventors have shown that nucleic acid binding proteins recruited to polymerized tubulin (i.e. microtubules) could, subsequently, be isolated from cell lysates. Surprisingly, it has now been found that the amount of recovered nucleic acid found in these microtubule pellets increases dramatically in the presence of nucleic acid-trapping proteins comprising a nucleic acid-binding moiety and a polymerized tubulin-binding moiety, by comparison to proteins devoid of the nucleic acid-binding moiety; and that the recovery of the purified nucleic acids was itself particularly efficient. This purification method is particularly amenable to high-throughput sequencing and/or in the context of a diagnosis method for identifying or comparing the amount of nucleic acids in a set of samples.