Genomic DNA and RNA Extraction from Cyanobacteria

Abstract

Cyanobacteria are an ancient group of Gram-negative, oxygenic photoautotrophs that contribute significantly to global carbon dioxide (CO2) and nitrogen (N2) fixation (Falkowski 1997; Whitehead et al. 2014). Phenotypic characterization combined with nucleic acid sequence–based molecular approaches is used to identify and classify a wide range of cyanobacteria occurring in diverse habitats (De Clerck et al. 2013; Sharma et al. 2014). The first and most important step in the molecular characterization of cyanobacteria, or any other organism, is to extract a sufficient amount of genomic DNA of high quality, which is further used as a template for the amplification of target genes for sequencing and analysis. Also, cyanobacteria are emerging model systems for the production of valuable chemicals by metabolic engineering that require alteration in the genetic makeup of the organism (Angermayr et al. 2009; Atsumi et al. 2009; Lindberg et al. 2010; Aikawa et al. 2014). © 2024 selection and editorial matter, Shailendra P. Singh, Rajeshwar P. Sinha and Donat-P. Häder; individual chapters, the contributors.