Optimizing efficient PCR‐amplifiable DNA extraction from herbarium specimens

Abstract

This article is part of the special issue "Emerging Methods in Botanical DNA/RNA Extraction."

Emerging methods in botanical DNA/RNA extraction

“…DNA extraction from herbarium specimens is feasible, but needs to be optimized to account for chemical changes in storage as well as to maximize yield from small amounts of tissue so that specimens may be used for additional purposes in the future (Besnard et al, 2018 ; Funk, 2018 ). In this issue, Gouker et al ( 2023 ) optimize a previously published protocol to study the effects of DNA extraction procedure, species, and specimen age on DNA yield. While a commercial kit outperformed other tested methods in terms of yield for specific taxa, all methods produced enough DNA for most subsequent experiments.…”