FAQ: When working with other commercial silica column-based kits, I occasionally see a white precipitate in the eluate. What is this?

Some silica matrices release silica fibers during the elution step. Although silica fibers generally do not affect most downstream applications, they influence OD measurements and should be removed by centrifugation if reliable spectrophotometric values are needed. Monarch Genomic DNA Purification Columns contain a retaining membrane that prevents silica fibers from passing through, thus eliminating the need to perform additional centrifugation prior to accurate spectrophotometric analysis.