Mag-Bind® Plant DNA DS 96 Kit

Is it possible to obtain a high molecular weight using the Mag-Bind Plant DNA DS 96 Kit?

It is challenging to extract high molecular weight DNA from plants. The pre-processing step with plants involves bead-beating, and bead-beating shears the DNA up. We recently did TapeStation® analysis on M1130 extracted plant DNA and found the size was roughly 20 kb.

What is the difference between M1128 and M1130?

The Mag-Bind Plant DNA DS 96 Kit (M1130) is an improved version of the Mag-Bind Plant DNA Plus 96 Kit (M1128). It has been reworked to better handle difficult samples (DS = Difficult Samples) that are rich in polysaccharides, phenolic compounds, and enzyme inhibitors from plant tissue lysates.

I am getting low 260/230 absorbance ratios using the Mag-Bind Plant DNA DS 96 Kit. How can I improve this?

The low A260/A230 ratios indicate two things. First is chaotropic salt carryover from the extraction. The second is sample-related carryover (polyphenols, polysaccharides etc.). If it is salt carryover, the ratio can be bettered by increasing the number of wash steps (3 SPM washes instead of 2). If it is a contaminant from the sample itself, we would recommend adding 1% β -mercaptoethanol and freshly prepared 2% PVP to CSPL buffer. PVP forms complexes with polyphenols and allows them to be separated from nucleic acids. β-mercaptoethanol is a strong denaturing agent and can help get rid of the polysaccharides.