BioSprint 96 DNA Plant Kit (576)

From QIAGEN, this automated kit uses magnetic-particle technology for rapid and economical purification of total DNA from plant tissue. Designed for use with the BioSprint 96 workstation, the kit processes sample amounts of 10–100 mg, delivers an elution volume of 200 µl, and completes a run in 15 minutes with yields of 5–20 µg.

The kit handles fresh, frozen or lyophilized plant material that is first mechanically disrupted into a fine powder using a homogenizer such as the TissueLyser LT or TissueLyser II. Cleared lysates are loaded into a 5-tube strip or S-Block and the instrument performs all subsequent steps. Because the magnetic-particle approach transfers particles rather than liquids, reagent consumption is kept to a minimum. Purified DNA is up to 40 kb in size and is ready to use in downstream applications including PCR, real-time PCR, genotyping and microsatellite analysis. According to the manufacturer, DNA purified with these kits is stable for at least 2 years when stored at 2–8°C or -20°C, and the BioSprint 96 instrument achieves a magnetic-particle collecting efficiency above 95%.

Performance figures reported by the manufacturer cover a broad range of species. Examples include Arabidopsis fresh leaves (50–120 mg) yielding 13–41 µg, maize fresh leaves (50 mg) yielding 10–41 µg, sunflower lyophilized leaves (5–10 mg) yielding 57–93 µg, soybean seeds (1 seed) yielding 80–105 µg, and wheat seeds (3–4 seeds) yielding 85–122 µg.