RAPID ISOLATION OF FISH MITOCHONDRIAL-DNA WITH A COMMERCIALLY AVAILABLE PLASMID ISOLATION KIT

A simple technique for rapid isolation of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) fr om fish tissues is described. The method, which uses the commercially available Qiagen Plasmid Isolation Kit, can be applied to both fresh a nd liquid-nitrogen-frozen tissues. The yield of mtDNA is comparable to that obtained by standard techniques. The mtDNA is sufficiently pure for restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) analysis by the en d-labeling procedure.