The guanidinium acid-phenol method of RNA extraction is relatively fast (4 h) and is useful for the processing of large numbers of samples, without the need for ultracentrifugation. This protocol produces total RNA that includes ribosomal, transfer, and messenger RNA. This high-quality RNA is suitable for Northern blot analysis, dot-blot hybridization, poly (A) RNA selection, in vitro translation, cDNA library construction, reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction, ribonuclease protection assay, and primer extension experiments.