A Partially Automated Method for DNA Extraction from Marmoset Hair Follicles to Avoid Blood Chimerism

September 2025 in “ OPAL (Open@LaTrobe) (La Trobe University) ”

Alexandra M. Stendahl (22313950), Qiangge Zhang (263901), Ana C. Lima (22313953), Curtis Mello (22313956), James Nemesh (84599), Sam Peterson (3474194), Jenna Castro (22313959), Fritzie T. Celino-Brady (22313962), Karina Ray (4397881), Xian Gao (5498990), Yuanyuan Hou (130870), Chenjie Shen (22313965), Katinka A. Vigh-Conrad (22313968), Fenna Krienen (22313971), Guoping Feng (13275), Steven A. McCarroll (22313974), Donald F. Conrad (9221365), Ricardo C. H. del Rosario (22313977)

TLDR Researchers created an efficient method to extract DNA from marmoset hair, avoiding blood chimerism.

Researchers developed a non-invasive, partially automated method for extracting DNA from marmoset hair follicles to address the issue of blood chimerism in these primates. This protocol, which uses proteinase K and Promega’s Maxwell RSC system, was tested on samples from over 300 animals across two species. It successfully produced high-quality whole genome sequencing libraries from approximately 150 hair follicles, with low chimerism rates of 2.3% and an average duplication rate of 0.19, comparable to blood-derived libraries. The method is efficient, scalable, and suitable for projects needing low-input DNA or high-throughput processing. Data on DNA yields and sequencing libraries are available in supplementary materials, with raw data archived at the NIH Sequence Read Archive.