Plant DNA extraction

[sm...@cornell.edu]

As a quick response to the idea of freeze-drying plant material... We have
found in our lab that freeze-drying reduces the quality and quantity of DNA
extracted from the material. We use fresh tissue most of the time, but
freeze the tissue at -70C for storage if needed. It may also depend on the
tissue. Brassica is stable and freeze-dries okay, but Malus does not. We
beilieve that this is due to greater amount of phenolic compounds in Malus.
I would suggest doing comparison extractions using fresh, frozen and
freeze-dried tissue.

Good luck!
Sharon

[Barbara E. Liedl]

In article <cga3-100...@132.236.3.7> sm...@cornell.edu writes:
>From: sm...@cornell.edu
>Subject: Re: Plant DNA extraction
>Date: Mon, 10 Apr 1995 10:50:06 +0000

AGREED! We tried using a protocol from Plant Molecular Biology Reporter by
Tai and Tanksley (can't remember the year) for tomato. When we did small runs
(twelve or less) of the technique it ran okay, not great. But when we scaled
up (50+), we ran in to problems. So, really test the system, we thought we
had really checked it out, by not only checking the recovery of DNA, but also
to see if it worked equally well in RFLP & RAPD procedures before switching
procedures, but were wrong.

We believe the problem was also with the phenolics compounds. Now we do
either do fresh or tissue stored at -80.

Barbara
bl...@cornell.edu