Alkaline hydrolysis

Alkaline hydrolysis is a chemical process in which a molecule is cleaved into two parts by the addition of a molecule of water in a solution with a pH greater than 7.

In cellular systems, the phosphodiester bond between two ribonucleotides can be broken by alkaline hydrolysis because of the free 2' hydroxyl group. The stability and lifetime of RNA is affected by alkaline hydrolysis.