DNA of high quality isolated from the cortex of <i>Euterpe edulis</i> Mart. (Arecaceae)

Abstract

Euterpe edulis is an arboreal species of high size that occurs naturally in the Atlantic Forest and in ‘Cerrado’ forests. For these characteristics, it is difficult to collect young, healthy and fresh leaves to obtain the genomic DNA of sufficient quality for the species, required for molecular biology studies. To facilitate the collection of biological material field, this study proposed the isolation from plant tissue in the cortex. Isolation and analyzes were carried out compared with the DNA obtained from young leaves coming from plants and tissue of the cortex of adult plants. The integrity of the DNA obtained was confirmed by electrophoresis, revealing the genomic DNA degradation and the low quality of the purification was checked by absorbance ratios criteria 260/280 nm and 260/230 nm, with a similar pattern in both types of tissues evaluated. DNA concentrations ranged from 81.9 to 310.1 ng/µl and cortex, from 105.2 to 404.8 ng/µl. The confirmation of the quality of the DNA obtained was determined by microsatellite amplification, where the products showed bands defined for both plant materials. Thus, the genomic DNA isolated from the cortex of Euterpe edulis, constitutes an additional plant tissue to obtain a genomic DNA of equal quality, quantity and integrity of the obtained sheets with the advantage of the collecting being facilitated in the field.