Bacterial community DNA extracted from soils polluted with heavy metals

This paper describes the application of two direct and one indirect methods for the extraction of microbial community DNA from soils polluted with hea vy metals. DNA was extracted directly from soil using a gentle method based on soil incubation at 37 degreesC with proteinase K and SDS, or the method was modified by the addition of a bead beating step. The indirect approach was based on the RNA/DNA extraction method. The level of soil contaminatio n did not affect the yields of DNA extracted and PCR amplification of the t arget DNA. The results indicate that the DNA obtained by the applied protoc ols was sufficiently pure for further molecular analyses.