Vol.:(0123456789) 1 3 Conservation Genet Resour DOI 10.1007/s12686-017-0735-z TECHNICAL REVIEW A simple and cost-efective method for obtaining DNA from a wide range of animal wildlife samples Manuel Hoyos 1  · Sergio Tusso 1  · Tatiana Ruiz Bedoya 2  · Angélica S. Manrique Gaviria 1  · Paul Bloor 1   Received: 24 August 2016 / Accepted: 4 March 2017 © Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2017 Introduction Molecular techniques involving the analysis of DNA are now routinely used in many areas of animal wildlife research (DeSalle and Amato 2004; DeYoung and Honey- cutt 2005). Genetic analyses can provide information on a number of issues of relevance to wildlife management and conservation, including population structure and dispersal rates, species presence and abundance, as well as parentage and relatedness (DeWoody 2005; DeYoung and Brennan 2005; DeYoung and Honeycutt 2005; Lukacs and Burnham 2005; Scribner et al. 2005; Waits and Paetkau 2005; Dreher et al. 2007; Kendall et al. 2008). DNA for genetic analy- ses can be isolated from almost any animal biological sam- ple. However, harnessing the potential benefts of genetic approaches to the study of animal wildlife populations depends on being able to obtain PCR-amplifable DNA. Methods for DNA isolation are well established for many types of animal biological samples. These include both non-commercial or traditional DNA isolation meth- ods, as well as commercially available methods. An advan- tage of many commercially available methods (or kits) over more traditional non-commercial methods is that they require very little previous laboratory experience to obtain adequate results and can be less cumbersome than more traditional non-commercial methods (e.g., phenol). Despite the advantages of commercially available kits, they can be prohibitively expensive for many laboratories, consuming often limited resources that would be better spent obtaining samples in the feld. The use of DNA isolation kits is particularly unfavoura- ble where resources a typically limited (such as in develop- ing countries) or when a large and undetermined number of samples must be processed. To avoid the use of expensive commercially available DNA extraction kits, laboratories Abstract Genetic analyses have become increasingly important in animal wildlife research where they have pro- vided information of direct relevance to species and popu- lation management. An integral part of genetic analysis is the isolation of PCR-amplifable DNA. However, address- ing the issue of DNA isolation in animal wildlife research can be challenging due to the wide range of potential bio- logical sources used to obtain DNA. Here, we present a modifed silica-based DNA isolation method for obtaining PCR-amplifable DNA from a wide range of biological sources typically encountered in animal wildlife research. We compared the present method with commonly used non-commercial and commercially available DNA extrac- tion methods. Our results show that DNA yield, quality and purity (as assessed by PCR amplifcation) are qualitatively comparable, and in many cases even better, than commonly used non-commercial and commercially available DNA extraction methods. We describe the main factors that can afect DNA yield and provide variants of the basic protocol that can be performed according to the DNA source. The simplicity, versatility and cost-efectiveness of this method, as well as the absence of hazardous reagents, makes it a valuable addition to the molecular toolbox of any wildlife genetics laboratory. Keywords DNA extraction · Non-invasive samples · Purifcation · Silica · Thiocyanate · Wildlife samples * Manuel Hoyos mahoyosr@unal.edu.co 1 Instituto de Genética, Universidad Nacional de Colombia, Bogotá, DC, Colombia 2 Departamento de Biología, Pontifcia Universidad Javeriana, Bogotá, DC, Colombia