The isolation of high molecular weight DNA from wheat, barley and rye for analysis by pulse-field gel electrophoresis.

A method is presented for the preparation of large DNA molecules from protoplasts embedded in agarose blocks of three different cereals--hexaploid bread wheat (Triticum aestivum), barley (Hordeum vulgare) and rye (Secale cereale). Pulse-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE) analysis of these DNA preparations using a contour-clamped homogeneous field (CHEF) apparatus indicated that the size of the DNA molecules was greater than 6 Mb. DNA samples prepared by this method were shown to be useful for restriction analysis using both frequent and rare cutting enzymes.