A miniprep is a procedure to extract plasmid DNA from bacteria. It is based on the alkaline lysis method invented by the researchers Birnboim and Doly in 1979.

When bacteria are lysed under alkaline conditions both DNA and proteins are precipitated. After the addition of acetate-containing neutralization buffer the large and less supercoiled chromosomal DNA and proteins precipitate, but the small bacterial DNA plasmids can renature and stay in solution.

Minipreps are used in the process of molecular cloning to analyze bacterial clones. A typical plasmid DNA yield of a miniprep is 20 to 30 µg.

Miniprep Protocols

http://www.protocol-online.org/prot/Molecular_Biology/Plasmid/Miniprep/

References

A rapid alkaline extraction procedure for screening recombinant plasmid DNA.

Birnboim HC, Doly J Nucleic Acids Res. 1979 Nov 24;7(6):1513-23.