Guanidine thiocyanate

Guanidine thiocyanate is a powerful, chaotropic agent which is widely used for purification of proteins and nucleic acids. Guanidine thiocyanate is preferred for the purification of RNA because it dissociates the RNA into its nucleic acids and protein forms and is commonly used in the guanidinium thiocyanate-phenol-chloroform extraction method. As one of the strongest protein denaturants, it inactivates nucleases more than twice as fast as Guanidine hydrochloride. It is useful for denaturation and refolding of proteins. At high molarity solutions, Guanidine thiocyanate irreversibly inactivates RNase. Guanidine thiocyanate causes proteins to dissolve readily, thus disintegrating cellular structures.