Rapid isolation of animal mitochondrial DNA by alkaline extraction

A simple technique for rapid isolation of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) from animal cells is described. The method is based on the selective alkaline denaturation procedure of Birnboim and Doly [(1979) Nucleic Acids Res. 7, 1513-1523] and avoids the use of CsCl gradient centrifugation. The yield of mtDNA is comparable to that obtained by standard techniques. This DNA is sufficiently pure for restriction analysis and cloning of mtDNA fragments.