Strawberry DNA Extraction

Question:

What does strawberry DNA look like?

Materials:

  • Beakers
  • Water
  • Laundry detergent
  • Salt
  • Strawberries
  • Zip-lock bags
  • Coffee filters
  • Spoons
  • Isopropyl alcohol (chilled)
  • Tweezers

Instructions:

  1. Measure 90 mL of water into a beaker or similar container.
  2. Pour 10 mL of laundry detergent into the 90 mL of water.
  3. Add 1/4 tsp of salt to the liquid in the beaker.
  4. Mix it all up.
  5. Place one strawberry in a plastic zipper-lock bag.
  6. Pour the extraction solution into the bag with the strawberry.
  7. Remove as much air from the bag as possible and seal it.
  8. Mash, smash, and mush the strawberry inside of the bag until there are no large pieces remaining.
  9. Pour the resulting strawberry and extraction solution mixture through a coffee filter and into a beaker or similar container.
  10. Use a spoon to press the strained bits of strawberry against the filter, forcing even more of the solution into the beaker.
  11. Transfer the solution into a smaller beak or similar container that holds around 50-100 mL of fluid.
  12. Add 5 mL of chilled isopropyl alcohol to the solution and hold the mixture at eye level.
  13. Gently remove the DNA, the white precipitate, from the solution using tweezers.