Optimizing the lysis step in CTAB DNA extractions of silica-dried and herbarium leaf tissues.

Premise: The use of cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB) is an effective and inexpensive method of extracting DNA from plants. The CTAB protocol is frequently modified to optimize DNA extractions, but experimental approaches rarely perturb a single variable at a time to systematically infer their effect on DNA quantity and quality.

Methods And Results: We investigated how chemical additives, incubation temperature, and lysis duration affected DNA quantity and quality.

What is the "modified" CTAB protocol? Characterizing modifications to the CTAB DNA extraction protocol.

Cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB)-based methods are widely used to isolate DNA from plant tissues, but the unique chemical composition of secondary metabolites among plant species has necessitated optimization. Research articles often cite a "modified" CTAB protocol without explicitly stating how the protocol had been altered, creating non-reproducible studies. Furthermore, the various modifications that have been applied to the CTAB protocol have not been rigorously reviewed and doing so could reveal optimization strategies across study systems.