Isolation of genomic DNA from the earthworm species Eisenia fetida

Our interest in detecting genotoxic exposure in earthworms led us to isolate high quality DNA from the Eisenia fetida species. For that, we compared a modification of the conventional phenol-chloroform extraction procedure, usually referred to as the Maniatis procedure, to two commercially available kits reportedly eliminating multiple partitions in phenol and chloroform, namely the Qiagen and Nucleon protocols. From the 260 nm optical density values, the commercial kits extracts hinted toward higher DNA recovery with those procedures. However, the 260/280 nm ratios indicated that the quality of the DNA isolated with the modified Maniatis procedure was purer than that isolated with the commercial kits, the latter being most probably contaminated by proteins and/or RNA. The Maniatis procedure was slightly modified by the introduction of a potassium acetate step for protein precipitation and by shortening the proteinase K treatment from 12-18 h to only 2 h. The higher quality of the DNA isolated by phenol-chloroform extraction was confirmed by quantification with the fluorescent 3,5-diaminobenzoic acid assay. Preliminary results suggest that the modified Maniatis procedure herein described is not only applicable for DNA adducts studies using 32P-postlabelling techniques but is also suitable for DNA extraction from other earthworm species such as Lumbricus terrestris.