Abstract
Fifteen strains of cyanobacteria, mainly Nostoc and Anabaena species, were screened for plasmids using five rapid procedures. Two of these methods, based on alkaline extraction and phenol extraction of cleared lysates respectively, were successful with a total of ten species, the latter method proving more sensitive. Plasmids ranging from less than 2.6 to at least 30 mD were isolated; most of the strains examined possessed one or two plasmids, while five lacked detectable plasmid DNA.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Allen MB, Arnon DI (1955) Studies on nitrogen-fixing blue-green algae. 1. Growth and nitrogen fixation by Anabaena cylindrica Lemm. Plant Physiology 30:366–372
Allen MM (1968) Simple conditions for growth of unicellular blue-green algae on plates. J Phycol 4:1–4
Asato Y, Ginoza HS (1973) Separation of small circular DNA molecules from the blue-green alga Anacystis nidulans. Nature 224:132–133
Baalen C Van (1962) Studies on marine blue-green algae. Bot Mar 4:129–139
Birnboim HC, Doly J (1979) A rapid alkaline extraction procedure for screening recombinant plasmid DNA. Nucleic Acids Research 7:1513–1523
Clewell DB, Helinski DR (1969) Supercoiled circular DNA-protein complex in Escherichia coli: purification and induced conversion to an open circular DNA form. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 62:1159–1166
Holmes DS, Quigley M (1981) A rapid boiling method for the preparation of bacterial plasmids. Analyt Biochem 114:193–197
Hondel CAMJJ van den, Keegstra W, Borrias WE, Van Arkel GA (1979) Homology of plasmids in strains of unicellular cyanobacteria. Plasmid 2:323–333
Kado, CI, Liu S-T (1981) Rapid procedure for detection and isolation of large and small plasmids. J Bacteriol 145:1365–1373
Kratz WA, Myers J (1955) Nutrition and growth of several blue-green algae. Am J Bot 42:282–287
Lau RH, Sapienza C, Doolittle WF (1980) Cyanobacterial plasmids: their widespread occurrence, and the existence of regions of homology between plasmids in the same and different species. Molec General Genetics 178:203–211
Meyers JA, Sanchez D, Elwell LP, Falkow S (1976) Agarose gel electrophoretic method for the identification and characterization of plasmid deoxyribonucleic acid. J Bacteriol 127:1529–1537
Reaston J, Hondel CAMJJ van den, Ende A van der, Arkel GA van, Stewart WDP, Herdman M (1980) Comparison of plasmids from the cyanobacterium Nostoc PCC 7524 with two mutant strains unable to form heterocysts. FEMS Micro Lett 9:185–188
Reaston J, Hondel CAMJJ van den, Arkel GA van, Stewart WDP (1982) A physical map of plasmid pDUI from the cyanobacterium Nostoc PCC 7524. Plasmid 7:101–104
Rippka R, Deruelles J, Waterbury JB, Herdman M, Stanier RY (1979) Genetic assignments, strain histories and properties of pure cultures of cyanobacteria. J Gen Microbiol 111:1–61
Roberts TM, Koths KE (1976) The blue-green alga Agmenellum quadruplicatum contains covalently closed DNA circles. Cell 9:551–557
Simon RD (1978) Survey of extrachromosomal DNA found in the filamentous cyanobacteria. J Bacteriol 136:414–418
Stanier RY, Kunisawa R, Mandel M, Cohen-Bazire G (1971) Purification and properties of unicellular blue-green algae (order Chroococcales). Bacteriol Rev 35:171–205
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Lambert, G.R., Carr, N.G. Rapid small-scale plasmid isolation by several methods from filamentous cyanobacteria. Arch. Microbiol. 133, 122–125 (1982). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00413524
Received:
Accepted:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00413524