Miniprep DNA isolation from unicellular and filamentous cyanobacteria

A rapid miniprep method for isolation of DNA from 12 strains of cyanobacteria belonging to groups I, III, IV and V is described. The protocol is a modification of the methods of Boyle and Lew [Boyle, J.S., Lew, A.M., 1995. An inexpensive alternative to glassmilk for DNA purification. Trends Genet. 11, 8] and the cetyltrimethyl ammonium bromide (CTAB) extraction method of Sahgai-Maroof et al. [Sahgai-Maroof, M.A., Soliman, K.M., Jorgensen, R.A., Allard, R.W., 1984. Ribosomal DNA spacer-length polymorphisms in barley: Mendelian inheritance, chromosomal location and population dynamics. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 81, 8014-80181. The new method is especially useful for obtaining cyanobacterial DNA from unicellular, filamentous and filamentous branched species. The method does not require phenol extraction and the product can be used directly for PCR amplification and restriction digestion.