Preparation of Genomic DNA from Mouse Tails and Other Small Samples

This protocol is used for extracting DNA from fragments of tissue for genotyping transgenic and knockout mice. Digestions of mouse tail fragments are performed overnight at 55°C. Each tail snippet generates 50-100 µg of DNA that can be used in dot or slot blotting to detect a transgene of interest, in Southern hybridization to detect DNA fragments that are <20 kb in size, and, more expediently, as a template in polymerase chain reactions (PCRs).