Männedorf, Switzerland
June 28, 2008
Molecular biologists at the
Research Centre for Agriculture and Forestry Laimburg in
Northern Italy, have developed a semi-automated procedure for
extracting and isolating high quality DNA from cereal crops,
using the Te-MagS™ magnetic separation module from
Tecan. The researchers are
performing large-scale microsatellite marker analysis to
genetically characterize local cereal landraces, in order to
establish and maintain a germplasm collection for these crops.
“Isolation of DNA from plant tissue represents a crucial step
for the quality and outcome of subsequent downstream
applications, such as PCR, sequencing or genotyping, but this
step can also be a considerable bottleneck for extensive plant
genotyping studies,” explained Dr Sanja Baric, head of the
Molecular Biology Section at the research centre. “The
semi-automated magnetic bead-based separation procedure that we
have established with the Te-MagS has at least doubled our
throughput and more than halved the manual labor time compared
to conventional cetyl-trimethylammonium bromide (CTAB)-based
protocols.”
Dr Baric’s set-up includes a Tecan Freedom EVO® 100 liquid
handling workstation with an integrated Te-MagS module for fully
automated DNA isolation from manually prepared plant lysates.
The final DNA elutes from 48 samples can be prepared within 90
minutes, and are of sufficient quality to give accurate
amplification of many different microsatellite loci.
To find out more on Tecan’s Te-MagS module, visit
www.tecan.com/te-mags.
Tecan is a leading global supplier of laboratory instruments
and solutions for the biopharma, forensic and diagnostic
industries. The company specializes in the development,
production and distribution of automation solutions for life
science laboratories. Through its REMP subsidiary
(www.remp.com), Tecan is the premier supplier of automated
laboratory storage and logistics systems. Tecan's clients
include pharmaceutical and biotech companies, university
research departments, diagnostic laboratories and companies as
well as forensics laboratories. Founded in Switzerland in 1980,
the company has production, research and development sites in
both North America and Europe and maintains a sales and service
network in 52 countries. In 2007, Tecan achieved sales of CHF
414.4 million (USD 345.3 million; EUR 252.7 million). Registered
shares of the Tecan Group are traded on the SWX Swiss Exchange
(TK: TECN/Reuters: TECZn.S/Valor: 1210019). |
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