Fig. 1
From: Alkaline hydrolysis to remove potentially infectious viral RNA contaminants from DNA
Schematic of RNA degradation under extreme alkaline pH conditions. a The phosphopentose backbone of RNA is shown. b The 2’ hydroxyl (OH) of RNA becomes deprotonated under extreme alkaline conditions leading to a nucleophilic attack on the 5’ phosphate (PO4) of the adjacent nucleotide. c An intermediate 2’,3’ cyclic phosphate is formed resulting in, d cleavage of the phosphopentose backbone of RNA. The resultant 2’,3’-cyclic phosphate may be further hydrolyzed to 2' or to 3' phosphate leaving RNA fragments or free ribonucleotides with 5’-OH and 3’-phosphates