Protocol

Extraction of DNA from Adult Amphioxus Tissue

¹ Institute of Cellular and Organismic Biology, Academia Sinica, Nankang, Taipei 11529, Taiwan, Republic of China
² Marine Biology Research Division, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA 92037, USA

³Corresponding author (jkyu{at}gate.sinica.edu.tw).

INTRODUCTION

This protocol describes the extraction of DNA from adult amphioxus (Branchiostoma floridae). Generally, we use adult B. floridae animals for extracting genomic DNA because the embryos are more precious and are only available during the summer breeding season. Whole adult amphioxus or dissected tissues are rapidly frozen and crushed to produce readily digestible pieces. The processed tissue is incubated in a buffer with proteinase K and sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) until most of the cellular protein is degraded. After removing protein from the samples by successive organic extractions, genomic DNA is recovered by ethanol precipitation. The resulting DNA can be used for Southern blotting, polymerase chain reaction (PCR), or other applications.