Nucleic Acid Precipitation: Precipitates DNA and RNA from aqueous solutions using ethanol or isopropanol for concentration and cleanup.

Post-Extraction Cleanup: Removes salts, phenol, and other contaminants after phenol-chloroform extraction via ethanol precipitation.

Gel Extraction Recovery: Enhances recovery of DNA from agarose gels by facilitating ethanol precipitation of extracted fragments.

Nucleic Acid Electrophoresis (SAE Buffer): Serves as the acetate component in SAE buffer for agarose gel electrophoresis of DNA.

Protein Purification (Cation Exchange): Acts as an acidic buffer for binding and elution on cation exchange chromatography.

Enzyme Assays: Provides acetate buffering at pH 5.2 for enzymes with acidic pH optima.

pH Adjustment and Buffering: Used to set and maintain solutions at pH 5.2 in biochemical and molecular biology workflows.

Low-Abundance RNA Recovery: Supports glycogen-assisted ethanol precipitation to maximize yield of small or dilute RNA samples.