AN EFFICIENT PROTOCOL FOR DNA EXTRACTION FROM FRESH AND HERBARIUM SPECIMENS OF HELIOTROPES

摘要

High quality DNA is essential in various techniques of molecular systematic. Herbarium specimens are the valuable source of genetic information in this respect especially for those taxa which grow in areas which are difficult to access, very rare or endangered. However, the DNA obtained from the herbarium specimen is often highly fragmented or present in very low quantity. Most of the Heliotropium L. species produce large number of secondary metabolites. For isolating high quality DNA, free from secondary metabolites, a low cost but efficient protocol for different species of Heliotropium L. is developed. The DNA isolated with this protocol was successfully used for PCR based downstream applications such as gene amplification, DNA sequencing and Bar coding.