Comparison of seven methods for DNA extraction from prosomata of the acorn barnacle, Amphibalanus amphitrite

Next generation sequencing (NGS) technologies can provide an understanding of the molecular processes involved in marine fouling by Amphibalanus spp. barnacles. Here, seven methods for extracting DNA from A. amphitrite prosomata were assessed with respect to recovery, purity and size distribution. Methods incorporating organic extractions generally resulted in low recovery of fragmented DNA. The most promising method was the commercial E.Z.N.A. Blood DNA Mini kit, which provided tens of micrograms of DNA of sufficient molecular weight for use in long-read NGS library preparation. Other kits resulted in DNA preps suitable for short read length NGS platforms.