Isolation and Preliminary Characterization of Mitochondrial DNA From the Thatching Ant, Formica obscuripes

Abstract

A simple and relatively quick procedure was developed for the extraction of mitochondrial DNA from the thatching ant Formica obscuripes . DNA obtained using this procedure was analyzed both after digestion with restriction enzymes (Eco R1 and Bam H1) and without digestion by electrophoresis on agarose gels. Although the DNA isolated appeared to be larger than the usual upper size limit (approximately 20 kb) for mitochondrial DNA, the undigested and digested molecules behaved as would be expected of a circular molecule with one restriction enzyme recognition site (i.e., the undigested form migrated further into the gel than the digested form).