Algae. 2000; 15(3): 133-136.

Simple and Rapid Isolation of Plasmids from Porphyra tenera

Hack Sun Choi, Kyong Hee Choi, Tae Hyong Rhew

Searching algal plasmids was the target of current efforts in developing transformation system in algae. To exploit the construction of a vector system, isolation of pure plasmid DNA was indispensable demand. However, currently available plasmid purification methods from algae were time-consuming and inflicted unavoidable impurity problems on the DNA preparation. Therefore, a plasmid isolation method originally described for E. coli by Birnboim and Doly (Sambrock et al., 1989) was adopted to Porphyra to isolate plasmid from P. tenera thalli. The modified method was constitute a total DNA isolation procedure and the SDS-alkaline lysis procedure without using ultracentrifuge. The plasmid DNAs isolated by the modified method were pure enough for the following molecular biological works.