title: Rapid and inexpensive recovery method of DNA fragments from agarose and polyacrylamide gels by a cotton-wool column tube.
abstract: We developed a rapid, convenient, simple, and inexpensive method for isolating pure DNA from agarose and polyacrylamide gels using cotton wool tubes. DNA fragments ranging in size from 193-23,130 bp can be easily recovered within 2 hours by centrifugation through cotton wool from gel slices. The recovery rate of this method is 35% to 50%, when estimated for isolation of lambda DNA-HindIII fragments. We have also recovered 700-bp polymerase chain reaction (PCR) products using cotton wool tubes from electrophoresis on both a 0.8% agarose gel and a 6% polyacrylamide gel, in which satisfactory yields of more than 50% were obtained. The DNA thus recovered in this way is biologically active and can be used as a substrate for further experimental procedures without additional purification steps.
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Genome Technology, Institute of Medical Science, University of Tokyo, Japan.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Watanabe
mesh_terms: D010582:Bacteriophage lambda; D003001:Cloning, Molecular; D004247:DNA / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D004279:DNA, Viral / Q000737:chemistry / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D015247:Deoxyribonuclease HindIII; D004587:Electrophoresis, Agar Gel; D004591:Electrophoresis, Polyacrylamide Gel; D003368:Gossypium; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction / Q000379:methods
chemical_list: D004279:DNA, Viral; D004247:DNA; D015247:Deoxyribonuclease HindIII