Isolation of genomic DNA

Abstract

It has been claimed that there exist at least as many methods of isolating nudeic acids as there are molecular biology laboratories (Jowett, 1986). This is surely an understatement, since my experience tells me that every graduate student will tend to introduce a new, usually irrelevant modification that, he or she hopes, will bring him to the top of the list of the most cited scientific authors. What is common to all of these methods is the care that has to be taken to obtain large molecular weight DNA, (i) by avoiding the action of contaminating DNases and (ii) by applying the least possible mechanical forces in order to minimize the shearing of the extremely long nucleic acid.