Paramagnetic Cellulose DNA Isolation Improves DNA Yield and Quality Among Diverse Plant Taxa

The immobile nature of land plants requires adaptation to their local environment.  They handle this constraint in part by being effective ‘chemical factories’.  These compounds, such as tannins, tough fibrous material, and/or secondary compounds perform essential functions for the plant but may interfere with DNA isolation and inhibit PCR amplification reactions.  This chemical diversity confers difficulty in designing a single low-effort DNA isolation method resulting in high yield and purity.  Here we evaluate a new method that gave a twofold advantage in average yield and greater consistency in sample purity (as inferred from 260:280 and 260:230  nm absorption ratios) in 25 plant species representing 21 families and 15 orders. This technology was originally developed for forensic science, based on MagnaCel paramagnetic cellulose particles (PMC).  The PMC method outperformed two popular plant DNA isolation methods:  the DNeasy Plant Mini Kit (silica column) and a common cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB) method.  In addition to higher yields and more consistent purity, the use of the Maxwell^R 16 instrument with the PMC method increases productivity and lowers cross-contamination by automating several steps.  A scientist can push ‘run’ and return in 40 minutes to samples ready for downstream applications.