DNA extraction of parasites - (Dec/24/2008 )

Hi everyone! Althogh my English is very poor, I hope you can understand what I say.Thanks!

I want to extracting the DNA of schistosoma from the sera of schistosoma infected rabbit. As you know, the quanlity of this DNA is very very low, and I used the phenol/chloroform but not work. I need the DNA for PCR . Any advice may be appreciated!

----unguyan from soochow university of china

this is not my field.

Schistosoma mansoni:Sexing Cercariae by PCR without DNA Extraction
Quantitative Detection of Schistosoma japonicum Cercariae in Water by Real-Time PCR
Cheap, rapid and efficient DNA extraction method to perform multilocus microsatellite genotyping on all Schistosoma mansoni stages
Early detection of Schistosoma mansoni infection by touchdown PCR in a mouse model
Recent Advances in the Diagnosis of Schistosoma Infection: the Detection of Parasite DNA
A rapid one-tube genomic DNA extraction process for PCR and RAPD analyses.

From the looks of things it is possible to PCR directly from sera if you are amplifying DNA repeats.... might have trouble when amplifying amplifying non repetitive schistosoma DNA. This is probably due to the low number of schistosoma in the sample. Thus filtration or centrifugation could be attempted to increase the concentration of schistosoma before DNA extraction.

Also from attempts to extract DNA.... it seems that schistosoma don't break so easily. I would use protenase in your extraction protocol.