[MEGA SAMPLES VOL-92
Melvin Amey
The QIAGEN Plasmid Mega Kit (cat. no. 12181) and the QIAGEN Plasmid Giga Kit (cat. no. 12191) can be used with the QIAfilter Mega-Giga Cartridges (cat. no. 19781) as an optional protocol step for rapid clearing of bacterial lysates by filtration instead of centrifugation. See more information regarding principle below.
The QIAGEN Plasmid Kits uses gravity-flow QIAGEN anion-exchange tips for efficient purification of plasmid DNA. Up to 10 mg (giga), 2.5 mg (mega), 500 g (maxi), 100 g (midi), and 20 g (mini) high-copy plasmid DNA is purified from culture (culture volumes depend on plasmid copy number, size of insert, host strain, and culture medium). Plasmid DNA purified with QIAGEN Plasmid Kits is highly suitable for use in applications such as transfection (see figure " Transfection efficiency versus plasmid purification method"), cloning, and in vitro transcription.
Neutralized bacterial lysates are cleared by centrifugation. The cleared lysate is then loaded onto the anion-exchange tip where plasmid DNA selectively binds under appropriate low-salt and pH conditions. RNA, proteins, metabolites, and other low-molecular-weight impurities are removed by a medium-salt wash, and ultrapure plasmid DNA is eluted in high-salt buffer. The DNA is concentrated and desalted by isopropanol precipitation and collected by centrifugation.
The unique anion-exchange resin in QIAGEN-tips is developed exclusively for the purification of nucleic acids. Its exceptional separation properties result in DNA purity equivalent or superior to that obtained by two successive rounds of CsCl gradient centrifugation. Prepacked QIAGEN-tips operate by gravity flow and never run dry, minimizing the hands-on time required for plasmid preparation. The entire QIAGEN plasmid purification system avoids the use of toxic substances such as phenol, chloroform, ethidium bromide, and CsCl, minimizing hazard both to the user and the environment.
As an optional protocol step for rapid clearing of bacterial lysates by filtration instead of centrifugation, you can use the QIAfilter Mega-Giga Cartridges (cat. no. 19781), which operate with house vacuum to efficiently clear even large volumes of bacterial lysate with minimal effort. The protocol is available in the handbook.
With QIAGEN Plasmid Kits, bacterial lysates are cleared by centrifugation. The cleared lysate is then loaded onto the anion-exchange tip where plasmid DNA selectively binds under appropriate low-salt and pH conditions. RNA, proteins, metabolites, and other low-molecular-weight impurities are removed by a medium-salt wash, and pure plasmid DNA is eluted in high-salt buffer (see flowchart "
Running fractions saved from each step in the plasmid preparation procedure on an agarose gel enables monitoring the performance of each crucial step in the protocol. If the plasmid DNA is of low yield or quality, the samples can be analyzed to determine at what stage of the purification procedure the difficulty occurred.
Please see the Troubleshooting Section of the QIAprep Miniprep Handbook and Appendix A of the QIAGEN Plasmid Purification Handbook for instructions, and a picture and legend explaining the typical results you may see. You can also access this information on our Plasmid Resource Pages.
Find out which origin of replication your plasmid contains, and look at the table below for classification into high-copy or low-copy types. This table can also be found online at the QIAGEN Plasmid Resource Center in the section 'Growth of bacterial cultures; Plasmid Copy Number' . A way to determine experimentally if the copy number of your plasmid is high or low is to perform a miniprep. A high-copy plasmid should yield between 3-5 ug DNA per 1 ml LB culture, while a low-copy plasmid will yield between 0.2-1 ug DNA per ml of LB culture.
Buffer P1 with RNase A used in QIAGEN Plasmid Purification Kits should be fine at room temperature for a few days. We would expect the enzyme to have some residual activity. However, optimal results cannot be guaranteed after storage at room temperature. If you notice that RNase A activity is substantially reduced, you can add fresh RNase A to your buffer.
It should be stored at room temperature. Buffer P2 is the lysis buffer used in a variety of QIAGEN kits for plasmid DNA purification. Details on buffer preparation and storage are presented in Appendix B of the QIAGEN Plasmid Purification Handbook.
Yes, please follow the User-Developed Protocol 'Isolation of BAC DNA using the QIAGEN Plasmid Midi Kit' (QP01). However, we recommend that the QIAGEN Large-Construct Kit be used for the purification of BAC DNA as it contains an exonuclease buffer for the removal of gDNA.
Very low-copy plasmids and cosmids of less than 10 copies per cell often require large culture volumes to yield significant amounts of DNA. The recommended conditions below are suitable for QIAGEN-tip 100 or QIAGEN-tip 500, and use centrifugation to clear lysates rather than QIAfilter Cartridges, due to the large culture volumes. After alkaline lysis, there is an additional isopropanol precipitation step to decrease the amount of lysate before DNA is bound to the QIAGEN-tip. Please follow the protocol for 'Very Low-Copy Plasmid/Cosmid Purification Using QIAGEN-tip 100 or QIAGEN-tip 500' in the QIAGEN Plasmid Purification Handbook. Culture volumes and tip sizes are selected to match the quantity of expected DNA with the capacity of the QIAGEN-tip.
No. The maximum culture volumes recommended for QIAGEN's plasmid preparation kits still apply, and should be strictly followed. LyseBlue reagent now allows the user to monitor potential problems (insufficient bacterial cell resuspension and lysis as a consequence of overloading) early in the plasmid preparation process.
Open circular plasmid, resulting from single strand nicks, usually migrates slower in agarose gels and forms (faint) bands above the supercoiled plasmid DNA band. Sometimes an additional band of denatured supercoiled DNA migrates just below the supercoiled form. This form may result from prolonged alkaline lysis with Buffer P2 and is resistant to restriction digestion.
For a detailed description on how to run and interpret an analytical gel, please see Appendix A in the QIAGEN Plasmid Purification Handbook: "Agarose Gel Analysis of the Purification Procedure", or visit this link.
Low yields of plasmid DNA can be caused by a number of different factors. The most common causes for low yield are poor culturing conditions and plasmid propagation, excessive amounts of starting material resulting in insufficient bacterial cell lysis and column overloading. When working with the anion-exchange based QIAGEN Plasmid Purification Kits, extra care is required during the isopropanol precipitation step, as the glassy DNA pellet may be difficult to see, and tends to be only loosely attached to the side of the tube.
We strongly recommend to review the information provided on our Plasmid Resource Page in the section 'Optimal results with QIAGEN plasmid kits', as it provides useful background information on growing bacterial cultures and general considerations for optimal results. It is also necessary to follow the instructions in the relevant protocols precisely to ensure the best plasmid yield and quality.
To determine at what stage of the procedure any problem occurred, save fractions from different steps of the purification procedure, and analyze by agarose gel electrophoresis. For a detailed description on how to run and interpret an analytical gel, please see Appendix A in the QIAGEN Plasmid Purification Handbook: "Agarose Gel Analysis of the Purification Procedure", or visit the QIAGEN Plasmid Resource Center.
Too vigorous mixing of the bacterial lysate causes genomic DNA to appear in the eluate. The lysate must be handled gently after addition of buffers P2 and P3 to prevent shearing of chromosomal DNA. The culture volume needs to be reduced if the lysate is too viscous for gentle mixing.
Use of LyseBlue Reagent enables visualization of efficient bacterial cell resuspension as a prerequisite for complete lysis, thereby helping to avoid overloading of the columns and additional difficulties related to highly viscous lysates.
When using the silica-based QIAprep Spin Miniprep Kit, a protocol is contained in the QIAprep Miniprep Handbook, in Appendix C: Special Applications. The protocol is called: 'Purification of plasmid DNA prepared by other methods'.
For our anion-exchange based Plasmid Purification Kits, a protocol can be accessed online at our Plasmid Resource Center, and is called 'Re-Purification of Plasmid DNA Prepared by Methods other than QIAGEN Tips'.
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