Purification of Labeled Oligonucleotides by Precipitation with Ethanol

If labeled oligonucleotides are to be used only as probes in hybridization experiments, complete removal of unincorporated label is generally not necessary. However, to reduce background to a minimum, the bulk of the unincorporated label should be separated from the labeled oligonucleotide. Most of the residual unincorporated precursors can be removed from the preparation by differential precipitation with ethanol, as described in this protocol, if the oligonucleotide is >18 nt in length.