How to Extract Dna from a Strawberry

How to: Extract DNA from a strawberry

Have you ever wondered how to extract DNA from a strawberry? If so today you're going to learn. In order to do this you're going to need: rubbing alcohol, a measuring cup, a freezer or ice, salt, glasses, some shampoo or dish liquid, strawberries, coffee filter, toothpick or craft stick, and a rubber band.

1st thing you're going to need to do is pour your alcohol into a glass. Next place the glass in the freezer or into a bowl of ice. The alcohol must be very cold to extract the DNA.

Next thing you're going to do is remove the stems from the strawberries with a knife. Place the strawberries in a Ziploc bag and seal shut. Then use a fork or your fingers to squish the strawberries until they are completely mashed. This should take a few minutes.

Then put some salt into another glass. Add a little tap water. Stir to dissolve the salt. Add some shampoo or dish liquid to the mixture. Stir gently until completely mixed.

Open the bag of mashed strawberries and add the soapy solution. Seal up the bag and mix with your fingers for about 60 seconds, trying not to develop too many soap bubbles. The detergent mixture opens the strawberry cells, releasing the DNA.

Place the coffee filter over the third glass and secure it with a rubber band. Pour the mixture into the filter. If the mixture is too thick to flow through, stir in a little more of the soap solution. Let the mixture filter through. This should take about 10 minutes.

Take the filter off and add the ice-cold alcohol to the mixture in the glass. After about 5 minutes, you should see a clumpy white substance beginning to form. This is the DNA. The alcohol allows the DNA to float. You can use the toothpick or the craft stick to pick up the DNA so you can look at its strands more closely.

That's pretty much all you need to do in order to Extract DNA from strawberries. In all of 7 pretty easy steps. I hope you had fun listening to me telling you how to extract the DNA, and I hope you try it sometime so you can too experience the fun that I had extracting DNA from a strawberry.