Enzyrim: A new additive to increase the DNA yield from different materials such as teeth, blood or saliva

Abstract

Enzyrim (Arte Copia, Zürich, Switzerland) is an enzyme mixture normally used for bone maceration. It is cheap, easy to handle, non-toxic and disposal is simple. When extracting DNA from Enzyrim treated teeth we discovered that the amount of extracted DNA was unexpectedly high. We then systematically investigated different biological materials using three extraction kits, the Invisorb Forensic kit, the PSP Spin Swab kit (both Invitek, Berlin, Germany) and the NucleoSpin Blood Quick pure kit (Macherey Nagel, Düren, Germany). DNA was extracted from buccal swabs, dried blood spots on filter paper, whole blood and toothpowder. All DNA extractions were performed according to the manufacturer's recommendations as well as after addition of Enzyrim to the lysis step of each kit. DNA quality and quantity were tested on ethidium bromide stained agarose gels. Absolute quantification was done using real time PCR. The DNA samples were also employed to genetic fingerprinting using the Powerplex ES and the AmpFlSTRIdentifiler kits. The application of Enzyrim greatly improves the DNA yield from forensically important materials and does not hamper DNA amplification. Thus Enzyrim apparently is a very useful additive for the optimisation of DNA extraction in the forensic routine.