Determination of the DNA methylation level of the marbled crayfish: an increase in sample throughput by an optimised sample preparation.

Using a previously described capillary electrophoretic method with laser-induced fluorescence detection the genomic methylation level can be determined exactly. We present a sample preparation that eliminates the surplus of fluorescence marker used for coupling resulting in an increase of sample throughput from 75 to 250 analyses per week. The sensitivity of the method was also increased, which allows the determination of methylation levels under 1%. With these changes in sample preparation a methylation level of 1.64+/-0.03% in hepatopancreas DNA of the recently discovered marbled crayfish could be determined.