Polyvinylpyrrolidone-agarose gel electrophoresis purification of polymerase chain reaction-amplifiable DNA from soils.

This communication describes a modification of agarose gel electrophoresis to provide a rapid and simple method for the purification of polymerase chain reaction-amplifiable DNA from soil. This modification is to add polyvinylpyrrolidone to the agarose gel. The polyvinylpyrrolidone addition retards the electrophoretic mobility of denaturing phenolic compounds so that they do not comigrate with nucleic acids.