FTA Cards® in tropical areas
I examined the utility of the FTA Cards® on field trips in Indonesia. In February 2003, I noticed individuals of Impatiens with features of two species. Although we had not expected to collect DNA samples of Impatiens before the trip, I collected DNA from these individuals using the FTA Cards®. A segment of leaf from each individual was put on an FTA Card, covered with Parafilm® (Pechiney Plastic Packaging, WI, USA), then squashed with a pen (Fig. 6A). Each spot assigned a collection number with a pen. The cards were dried in a small plastic bag with small amount of silica gel. All procedures were carried out in a campsite on the mountain. The cards were stored in a plastic bag during the field trip in Indonesia. They were brought to our laboratory where fragments of the card were washed, dried and used succesfully as PCR templates (Fig. 6B) and I could prove gene flow between the two Impatiens species (Tsukaya, 2004). Collecting DNA by this method was effective, even in a tropical area.
Fig. 6. Collection of DNA samples by FTA Cards. A, Schematic diagram of how plant DNA is immobilized on the FTA Cards in a field. See text for details. B, Examination of quality of DNA templates collected in a field trip in Indonesia by PCR amplification of the ITS2 region. Sixteen independent samples of Impatiens DNA immobilized on the FTA Card were amplified as described earlier (Tsukaya, 2003). The far right lane (M) shows size markers. Electrophoresis of 5 μl of product was carried out for 2% agarose gel (Photo: Ms. M. Kondo, National Institute for Basic Biology).