Simple plant DNA isolation procedures

Abstract

A key step in the analysis of plant DNA restriction fragments is the purification of sufficient quantities of good-quality DNA from plant tissues. High DNA yields are often needed for studies that require analysis of several Southern blots, and the purified DNA must be free of contaminants that interfere with restriction endonuclease digestion or electrophoretic separation of DNA fragments. Contaminants, such as polysaccharides, can cause shifts in mobility during electrophoresis resulting in misinterpretation of fragment differences among genotypes. This may not be a problem when analyzing a population that is segregating for a few expected restriction fragments. However, it can be a serious problem when analyzing many unique genotypes for fragment length polymorphisms.