DNA Protocols for Plants

Abstract

This procedure has been used with success on a wide variety of plant groups and even some animals. The method is used to isolate total genomic DNA (nuclear, chloroplast, and mitochondrial). It is a rapid, inexpensive method that is suitabie for use in conjunction with other protocois, such as isolation of DNA enriched for cpDNA. it is also easy to scale down for use in population sampling, using 0.01g or less of fresh tissue. Other applications include isolation of DNA from herbarium specimens (Doyle & Dickson, 1987. Taxon 36:715–722), and isolation of RNA. A brief word on the history of the protocol is in order. This procedure was modified by us (Doyle and Doyle, 1987. Phytochemical Bulletin 19:11–15) for use with fresh plant tissue from a method of Saghai-Maroof et al. (1984, PNAS USA 81:8014–8019) who used lyophilized tissue. They in turn had developed their procedure from earlier protocols. We were recently asked to publish a slightly modified version of our procedure (Doyle and Doyle, 1990 Focus 12:13–15). We recently learned from Brian Taylor (Texas A&M University, USA) that he had published a virtually identical procedure for fresh tissue, also in Focus, in 1982 (Taylor & Powell, Focus 4:4–6) of which we (and apparently the editors of Focus!) were entirely unaware. It is indeed a useful procedure, thus independently confirmed.