Formamide significantly enhances the efficiency of chemical adenylation of RNA sequencing ligation adaptors

Formamide increases the rate of adenylation. (A) Time course of adenylation of a 5′ phosphorylated DNA oligonucleotide (ODN1) in either water or 95% formamide. (B) Quantification of the adenylation time course showing both one-phase exponential and two-phase exponential equations fit to the data. Mean and confidence intervals for initial rates were calculated by fitting each replicate individually and calculating the initial rate.