The ZymoBIOMICS™ RNA Mini Kit is designed for purifying RNA from a wide array of sample inputs (e.g. feces, soil, plant, water, and biofilms) that is ready for microbiome or metagenome analyses. The ZymoBIOMICS™ innovative lysis system eliminates bias associated with unequal lysis efficiencies of different organisms (e.g. gram negative/positive bacteria, fungus, protozoans, and algae). The provided DNA/RNA Shield™ preserves nucleic acids at ambient temperatures, providing an unbiased molecular snapshot of the sample. The procedure uses Zymo-Spin® column technology that results in high-quality total RNA (including small RNAs 17-200 nt) that is free of PCR inhibitors (e.g. polyphenols, humic acids, and fulvic acids) and is ready for RT-PCR, hybridization, sequencing, etc