Epithelial mucosa as an alternative tissue for DNA extraction in amphibians

We evaluated the performance of amphibian epithelial mucosa as a non-destructive method for sampling DNA in four extraction protocols. We took tissue from 68 individuals of Eleutherodactylus johnstonei (Anura: Eleutherodactylidae) through a surface smear of each specimen with a sterile swab. DNA was extracted using the DNeasy extraction kit (Qiagen), Salting-out, Phenol–chloroform, and Chelex protocols. We compared the quality of the resulting DNA through amplification and sequencing of the 16S rRNA mitochondrial gene. Successful amplification was obtained from DNA isolated from two protocols (Salting out and the DNeasy kit). The resulting sequences corresponded to those registered in the GenBank for this species, demonstrating that epithelial mucosa it is a valuable alternative method for obtaining DNA in frogs.