A rapid procedure for the isolation of yeast mitochondrial DNA suitable for restriction fragment analysis

A method for the rapid isolation of mitochondrial DNA from the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae is described. Cells are first disrupted by vortexing with glass beads and the mitochondiral DNA is then extracted directly from the cell lysate by poly-l-lysine-kieselguhr-exchange chromatography. The method is unique from most other published procedures in that there is no requirement for the isolation of either a crude or purified mitochondrial preparation. Mitochondrial DNA isolated by this procedure is shown to yield restriction endonuclease fragment patterns identical to those obtained from DNA isolated by other previously reported procedures.