Ivan Mendoza

13 March 2018

Ms. Haggerty

Biology Honors 2A

Strawberry DNA Extraction Lab

Overview: ​All living organisms is made with many cells. Each cell has a job, differently

than the other, that’s controlled by brain of the cell or the nucleus. The cells are controlled by

DNA that has the ability to code every cell with a certain role. In strawberries, there are eight

copies of genetic material that makes them an octoploids. When extracting DNA, it is easier to

find strawberries DNA because there is so much of it.

Problem Statement: ​Is it possible to extract DNA from a strawberry with buffer solution

and ethanol alcohol?

Hypothesis: ​If the DNA buffer solution is added to the actual DNA, then the DNA will

be extracted because of the octoploids.

Independent variable:

● DNA Buffer Solution.

● Ethanol Alcohol.

Dependent Variable:

● Extracted DNA.

● Observations.

Materials:
● 1 strawberry.

● Ziploc bag.

● Beaker.

● Cheesecloth to fit in small funnel.

● Small funnel.

● DNA extraction buffer. (900mL water, 50mL dishwashing detergent, 2 teaspoons salt)

● Glass stirring rod.

● 50mL vial / test tube.

● Cold Ethanol. (Isopropyl Alcohol)

Prosedure:

1. Place one strawberry in a Ziploc bag.

2. Squish up the strawberry using your fist and fingers

for 2 minutes. (Do not to break the bag.)

3. Add 10 mL of extraction buffer (salt and soap solution) into the bag.

4. Mush the strawberry in the bag again for 1 minute with the solution.

5. Build your filtration.

6. Pour the strawberry gush into the filtration and let it drain into the test tube.

7. Slowly pour cold ethanol into the tube. (Observe what is going on.)

8. Dip the glass rod into the tube where the strawberry extract and ethanol layers

come into contact with each other, and swirl the rod. (Observe what is going on.)

Observations:
 What I observe during this experiment was that when we were squishing up the

strawberry, it seemed that it was best because it would have better access to the cells of the DNA

of the strawberry. Then, I noticed that when we added the buffer solution and started to squish it

around for 1 minute, it began to foam up a little which i assume it was a good sign because it

looked like the solution was activating the strawberry DNA to be easy to extract when adding the

cold Ethanol once it was drained. After, I noticed that when we extracted the DNA, that the DNA

from the strawberry was a clear layer.

Explain the purpose of the following steps in the lab:

A. Filter strawberry slurry through cheesecloth.

The purpose to filter the strawberry through a cheesecloth was to extract the juice from the

strawberry is that it would be a better way to extract the DNA with the plumps of the strawberry

in the way.

B. Mush strawberry with salty/soapy solution

The purpose to mush the strawberry with salty/soapy solution is because the solution makes it

easy and fast to extract the DNA from the juice that was produces.

C. Initial smashing and grinding of strawberry

The reasoning to smash and grind the strawberry was to make the strawberry into juice in order

to make it easier to extract the DNA.

D. Addition of ethanol to filtered extract

The addition of ethanol to the filtered extract was so the ethanol can remove the DNA from the

solution.
 2. What did the DNA look like? Relate what you know abou the chemical structure

of DNA to what you observed today.

The DNA looked like mucus with the colors of white and pink. The chemical structure of

DNA that we observed today is how they bond together and stay together.

3. Explain what happened in the final step when you added ethanol to your

strawberry extract. (Hint: DNA is soluble in water, but not in ethanol)

What happened in the final step when we added enthanol to our extract was that the

Ethanol was separating from water, and the strawberry juice that made it easier to take out.

4. A person cannot see a single cotton thread 100 feet away, but if you wound

thousands of threads together into a rope, it would be visible much further away. Is this

statement analogous to our DNA extraction? Explain.

This statement analogous to our DNA extraction because after we added the salty/soapy

solution the DNA, it was already separated. When the ethanol was added and mixed, a chemical

reaction happens and all of the DNA cell’s gathered together.

5. Why is it important for scientists to be able to remove DNA from an organism?

List two reasons.

1. To be able to study the DNA.

2. To see is the relations of the living thing to another.

Conclusion:

At the end of this lab, my hypothesis was correct because the DNA buffer solution when

it was added to the actual DNA, the DNA was extracted easily because of the octoploids that
made it easy to make the DNA visible.