Nucleic Acid Precipitation: Facilitates DNA and RNA precipitation with ethanol or isopropanol (typically 0.3 M final from 3M Sodium Acetate, pH 5.2) for cleanup and concentration.

Post-Extraction Cleanup: Used after phenol-chloroform extraction to remove contaminants and recover nucleic acids efficiently.

Ligation and Enzyme Reaction Cleanup: Precipitates DNA to remove salts, enzymes, and cofactors after cloning or PCR workflows.

RNA Workflows: Provides acidic buffering (pH 5.2) that supports RNA precipitation and handling while minimizing RNase activity.

Acetate Buffer Systems: Serves as a stock to prepare acetate buffers around pH 4–5.5 for biochemical assays and storage.

Cation-Exchange Chromatography: Acts as the buffering ion at acidic pH to condition, load, and elute proteins on cation exchangers.

Agarose Gel Electrophoresis (SAE): Can be used to prepare sodium acetate-based running buffer for DNA gels when low ionic strength is desired.

Protein and Virus Sample Preparation: Adjusts ionic strength and pH in workflows requiring mild acidic conditions prior to downstream analysis.