Comparison of Swabbing Solution Volume and gDNA Extraction Kits on DNA Recovery from Rigid Surface

Indian J Microbiol. 2020 Jun;60(2):206-213. doi: 10.1007/s12088-019-00854-6. Epub 2020 Jan 7.

Abstract

For bacteria sampling studies, various collection methods have been used to identify bacteria. To obtain accurate information about bacteria, high quality samples should be obtained. In order to obtain a high quality sample, a stable and large number of DNA copies must be collected. This study compared the efficiency of different methods of bacterial gDNA extraction and bacteria collection according to swabbing solution volumes and types. The efficiency of bacterial genomic DNA extraction was compared using a AccuPrep® Genomic DNA Extraction kit, a QIAamp® DNA Mini kit, and a MOBIO® DNeasy PowerSoil kit. The DNA Mini kit was shown to extract the highest amount of gDNA, and sub-experiments were conducted using this kit. Phosphate-buffered saline and phosphate-buffered saline with 0.1% Tween 20 were used as collection solutions of various volumes (0, 40, 50, 60, 70, 80, 90, 100, 110, and 120 μL) using cotton swabs. Bacteria collection efficiency was highest when 70 μL PBS was used. The target strains collected in this experiment were Staphylococcus aureus and Escherichia coli, and these were quantified using the number of colony-forming units, DNA concentrations, and the number of DNA copies. These results can be used to efficiently bacterial collection for experiments in various fields.

Keywords: Bacteria collection; CFUS; Cotton swab; DNA concentration; PBS; PBST; gDNA extraction kit.