An improved rapid method for DNA recovery from cotton swabs

Alexander Gray; Agnieszka Kuffel; Niamh Nic Daeid

doi:10.1016/j.fsigen.2023.102848

An improved rapid method for DNA recovery from cotton swabs

Forensic Sci Int Genet. 2023 May:64:102848. doi: 10.1016/j.fsigen.2023.102848. Epub 2023 Feb 16.

Authors

Alexander Gray¹, Agnieszka Kuffel², Niamh Nic Daeid²

Affiliations

¹ Leverhulme Research Centre for Forensic Science, University of Dundee, Dundee, UK. Electronic address: a.z.gray@dundee.ac.uk.
² Leverhulme Research Centre for Forensic Science, University of Dundee, Dundee, UK.

PMID: 36821959
DOI: 10.1016/j.fsigen.2023.102848

Abstract

We present a novel rapid method for the recovery of cellular and free DNA from cotton swabs based on a simple elution buffer containing a high molecular weight polymer and detergent combined with a short proteinase K digestion to release cellular DNA. This method shows increased yields approaching 80% recovery of the input DNA compared to the QIAamp DNA Mini kit standard extraction protocol for swabs which has a recovery of 20-30%. The buffer components in the described method are compatible with direct PCR analysis of the isolated DNA without further purification. Recovery efficiencies were estimated by qPCR.

Keywords: Cotton swabs; DNA recovery; Direct PCR; Extraction.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

DNA Fingerprinting* / methods
DNA* / genetics
Humans

Substances

DNA