Mentor: Richard Moore, Ph.D.

Methods of DNA extraction for plants can vary greatly depending on taxa and the type of tissue that is used for extraction (Marsal et al., 2013). Cetyltrimethylammonium bromide DNA extraction, or CTAB, is a very common method that uses its namesake compound to lyse cells and extract the DNA within. The methodology, when used for plant DNA extraction, is commonly altered to cater to specific species. The reason for this is that different families have developed different secondary metabolites that can affect DNA yield when the cell membrane is lysed and free DNA is exposed to them (Afsharzadeh & Abbasi, 2016). This study seeks to determine if a common methodology can yield similar amounts of DNA across families that are known to contain differing secondary metabolites. An altered CTAB methodology was used to extract DNA from four families, Lamiaceae, Ranunculaceae, Caprifoliaceae, and Poaceae. The study found that families with higher levels of volatile compounds yielded less DNA than families with lower amounts and less volatile compounds.