Praise Jah, We Can Extract Fish DNA

I did a test DNA extraction today with James and Andrew. We did it the way described in Kocher et al. (1989), with PCI/CI phase extractions to concentrate DNA in an aqueous phase and strip out proteins on top of hydrophobic phases. It worked because Joe Leahy was kind enough to let me use some of his unopened PCI, since mine apparently went bad over a year ago. So we used a Fundulus similis (longnose killifish) from a Dauphin Island collection as a test subject, slicing off some white muscle for tissue. It worked great, we got a nice little grayish/whitish smear for a pellet after the frozen ethanol precipitation. We'll test its concentration and purity on Friday using Joe's UV spectrophotometer. If that gives us good numbers we'll go ahead and extract DNA from F. bifax I collected at Cornhouse Creek in Randolph county with Joe Scanlan a few years ago. I've pretty much decided to go ahead with this method of DNA extraction rather than the kits, because it yields a fair amount of DNA suspended in TE buffer for PCR reactions. Alright, we're gene jockeys! (At least we collect our own fish...)