Utility of Ethidium Bromide in the Extraction from Whole Plants of High Molecular Weight Maize DNA

Abstract

A procedure is reported for the isolation of high molecular weight maize DNA from whole plant tissue. Nuclei are isolated in the presence of ethidium bromide from leaf, node, and tassel or endosperm tissues and the DNA is extracted and purified. The resulting DNA has a double-strand molecular weight of about 125 kilobase pairs and a single-strand molecular weight of about 125 kilobases. The DNA is cleavable by a number of common restriction endonucleases.