Alkaline lysis

Alkaline lysis is the process of isolating and extracting deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) from plasmids and other extrachromosomal sources present in cells such as bacterial cells. It is a standard method used in molecular biology to isolate plasmid DNA without obtaining chromosomal or genomic DNA. The first alkaline lysis was performed by Birnom and Doly in 1979. There are many variations of the procedure but the general process of alkaline lysis can be summarized with the following steps: formation of a cell pellet, resuspension of the pellet in solution, cell lysis, neutralization, and centrifugation. Alkaline lysis takes advantage of the small and supercoiled physical composition of plasmid DNA compared to chromosomal DNA, along with its ability to re-anneal double-stranded DNA in optimal conditions. This allows for the separation of plasmid DNA from chromosomal DNA and other cellular components.

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