A Quick and Inexpensive Method for Removing Polysaccharides from Plant Genomic DNA

A quick and inexpensive method has been demonstrated to remove polysaccharide contamination from plant DNA. Isolated plant genomic DNA with polysaccharide contaminants was dissolved in TE (10 mM Tris-HCl, pH 7.4, 1 mM EDTA) with NaCl ranging from 0.5-3.0 M, then precipitated with two volumes of ethanol. Most of the polysaccharides were removed effectively in a single high-salt precipitation at 1.0-2.5 M NaCl. At 3.0 M NaCl, the salt precipitated out of solution. Purified DNA was easily digested by either HindIII or EcoRI and was satisfactory as a template for PCR. The results show that high-salt precipitation effectively removed polysaccharides and their inhibitory effects on restriction enzyme and Taq polymerase activity.