Insect PCR

[Patrick O'Neil]

On 5 Apr 1995, Rod Bonfiglioli wrote:

> Does anyone have any usefull experience in dioing PCR on small insects?  i need
> to do standard pcr, not RT and the insects are very small.  Any helpfull tips
> appreciated.

It really shouldn't be any big deal.  I have worked with Drosophila DNA, 
though not for PCR, and found that DNA extraction is not too tough.  
There are special, minor, procedures to follow since insects aren't yeast 
or bacteria or plants but with each of these the specific protocols are 
a bit different.  When I extracted genomic DNA from flies, it was with a 
Quiagen DNA extraction kit (there are other kits and non-kit 
procedures).  A little mashing up of bug and a few spin column steps and 
viola!  Clean DNA usable for practically any procedure.  
  The PCR itself is just as simple (I have yet to do an RT-PCR - I have 
always done simple PCR).

Patrick
 
If you want details, I suppose I could dig up my bug mashing protocol and 
it should work for you too.  In reality, this shouldn't be necessary.