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It is possible to carry out the isolation of native nucleic acids from higher plants by basically different phenoldetergent methods. Considering the nature of biological material, extraction of native NA proved sometimes to be relatively easy while at other times it requires particular treatment. This paper deals with various procedures for the isolation of native NA from young (7-days old) and older (15-days old) sunflower leaves (Helianthus annuus). It was found that the common procedures for the isolation of native NA from plant meterial couldn’t be successfully applied for the analyses of sunflower leaves. An extremely satisfactory extraction and preparation quality was obtained through isolation of NA from young leaves by the method Konarev and Tjuterev (1970). However, it couldn’t be applied for the isolation of NA from older leaves, as the extraction of DNA is very poor, indicating significantly stronger bonds between DNA and proteins in young leaves, which, of course, contain free DNA too. The most convenient extraction of NA from both young and old leaves has been obtained by the modified method of Konarev and Tjuterev, where extraction is occuring in an alkali media (pH 7.6), and the last reextraction at higher temperature (65 °C) in an acidic media (pH 6.0). Preparations yield obtained by this procedure was satisfactory and the characteristic values for quality were in the range of values for native NA.

It is possible to carry out the isolation of native nucleic acids from higher plants by basically different phenoldetergent methods. Considering the nature of biological material, extraction of native NA proved sometimes to be relatively easy while at other times it requires particular treatment. This paper deals with various procedures for the isolation of native NA from young (7-days old) and older (15-days old) sunflower leaves (Helianthus annuus). It was found that the common procedures for the isolation of native NA from plant meterial couldn’t be successfully applied for the analyses of sunflower leaves. An extremely satisfactory extraction and preparation quality was obtained through isolation of NA from young leaves by the method Konarev and Tjuterev (1970). However, it couldn’t be applied for the isolation of NA from older leaves, as the extraction of DNA is very poor, indicating significantly stronger bonds between DNA and proteins in young leaves, which, of course, contain free DNA too. The most convenient extraction of NA from both young and old leaves has been obtained by the modified method of Konarev and Tjuterev, where extraction is occuring in an alkali media (pH 7.6), and the last reextraction at higher temperature (65 °C) in an acidic media (pH 6.0). Preparations yield obtained by this procedure was satisfactory and the characteristic values for quality were in the range of values for native NA.