Abstract

EXTRACTION, QUANTITATION & PURITY ESTIMATION OF GENOMIC DNA FROM MURRAYA KOENIGII (LINNAEUS) SPRENG WETTST LEAVES: EFFECT OF SEASON

Tanisha Dutta, Satabdi Bhattacharjee, Tanaya Ghosh, Prasanta Kumar Mitra*

Abstract

Medicinal plants play a major role in primary healthcare and are the basis of treatment and cure for various diseases. Therefore, medicinal plants need proper breeding. Study on genetic diversity is also needed for these important plants. For studies on breeding and genetic diversity isolation of pure deoxy-ribonucleic acid (DNA) in good quantity is essential. Murraya koenigii Linnaeus Spreng Wettst (M. koenigii L.), family Rutaceae, is a medicinal plant possessing several pharmacological activities. Aim of the present work was to isolate genomic DNA from leaves of M. koenigii L. and to study purity of the isolated DNA. Seasonal effect on isolation and purity estimation of the DNA from the plant leaves was also done to know the season when optimum amount of pure DNA can be obtained. Leaves of M. koenigii L. were collected from the medicinal plants garden of the University of North Bengal, Dist. Darjeeling, West Bengal, India during autumn (September – November), winter (December - February), summer (March – May) and rainy seasons (June – August). Genomic DNA was isolated from the collected M. koenigii L. leaves of four seasons byconventional method. All DNA samples were quantitated by colorimetric method.Purity estimation of genomic DNA was done by spectrophotometer. Amount of DNA isolated from M. koenigii L. leaves of rainy season (June – August), was found maximum in comparison to the amount of DNA isolated from the plant leaves in other seasons though the value was not statistically significant. DNA isolated from M. koenigii L. leaves of rainy season was pure as evidenced by ratio of A260/A280 which was 1.81. But the ratio of A260/A280 of DNA samples isolated from A. precatorius L. leaves during winter, summer and autumn were 2.22, 2.18 and 2.09 respectively. It is concluded that M. koenigii L. leaves of rainy season should be used to get maximum amount of pure DNA from the plant leaves.

Keywords: Murraya koenigii Linnaeus, DNA extraction, Purity estimation, Effect of season.