What's the Magic in Magic Minipreps?

[Paul N Hengen]

In article <edbeaty-160993134309 at koniskyj3.life.uiuc.edu> edbeaty at uxa.cso.uiuc.edu
(ed beaty) writes:

> Hi!  My lab is doing a lot of DNA work right now, and we routinely use the
> Magic (TM) Miniprep system from Promega.  It's basically an alkaline lysis
> prep with a column purification step to get rid of proteins and linear and
> nicked circular DNA.

I don't think you can remove linear and oc DNA with this method.

> My problem is, Promega tells you the composition of
> the lysis and wash buffers, but not the nature of the resin used in the
> column step.  I was wondering if anyone out there knows what the resin is,
> or if there are other (preferably inexpensive) resins that could be used to
> bind plasmid DNA but let all the other stuff pass through.

We all have a pretty good idea about what it is ;-) You could try the cheap
binding matrix recipe found in the FAQ list, and if you really like the little
dinky plastic things, you could use a syringe fitted with a Whatman 3MM
cartidge or just a wad of 3MM paper. This would act just like the Promega Midi-
or Maxi- prep device supplied with their kits. This topic has been discussed
many times, so there's lots of stuff in the archives about it. Try you hand
at Gopher.

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* Paul N. Hengen, Ph.D.                           /--------------------------/*
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