DNA Extraction Laboratory Exercise

Name:___________________________________ Period:_______

We will participate in a laboratory exercise in which you will attempt to extract DNA from
several different organisms. Even though DNA is found in virtually every cell a living organism,
it can be difficult to extract from cells.

You are to read the following background information and instructions before you conduct
your our laboratory exercise:

Strawberries
Technically, strawberries aren't berries at all. They're "aggregate fruits": they form
from a flower that has many ovaries.
To explain: the ovary is the part of a flower that ripens into a fruit. While some flowers
have one ovary, other flowers, like the strawberry flower, have many.When a strawberry
flower is pollinated (by bees and their friends), the ovaries swell and form what's called the
fleshy receptable -- the red, juicy part you eat. (The tiny "seeds" on the outside are actually
called achenes. Inside each achene is a seed. The green leafy crown at the top is the calyx.)
Since an aggregate fruit forms from more than one ovary, it's called a complex fruit.
Raspberries (aggregate fruit), blackberries (ditto) and mulberries (multiple fruit) are also
complex fruits.
True berries, on the other hand, are a type of simple fruit: they form from a flower
that has just one ovary. The inside of a berry is soft and mushy and usually has more than one
seed. Grapes, tomatoes and cranberries are berries. So are bananas!
Some species of strawberry are diploid, having two sets of the seven chromosomes (14
chromosomes total). Others are tetraploid (four sets, 28 chromosomes total), hexaploid (six
sets, 42 chromosomes total), octoploid (eight sets, 56 chromosomes total), or decaploid (ten
sets, 70 chromosomes total).
Ripe strawberries produce large amounts of pectinases and cellulases which function by
breaking down components in the cell wall (pectin and cellulose). This may explain the relative
softness of ripe fruit in relation to unripe fruits. (from: http://extension.osu.edu)

Bananas
The term banana is applied to both the plant and its elongated fruit. The Banana itself
is from the berry family. A berry is a simple fruit having a skin surrounding one or more seeds
in a fleshy pulp. Bananas can be either Diploid or Triploid (44 or 66 chromosomes). The little
black dots in commercial bananas are abortive seeds that did not fully develop. A diploid
banana is smaller and contains many large hard seeds about the size of coffee beans.
Bananas have 22 chromosomes per haploid set.

(From:
http://seattlecentral.edu/faculty/mboyle/BIO101/Lab%20Exercises/BIO101_lab_14.pdf.)

Pre-lab Questions

Some of the following questions can be found in your science book, the background information for this lab,
while others you may have to look up in a dictionary (or even the internet).

1. What is the importance of DNA? (In other words, what role does DNA play in life?)


2. Where is DNA found in Eukaryotic organisms?


3. Name the four Base Pairs Found in DNA.


4. Cells contain four very important Organic Compounds. Name them:


5. Cell membranes are made up by three of the four compounds named in question #4. Which of the four
makes up most the cell and nuclear membrane?


6. DNA is a long thread that is wrapped around a group of organic compounds that protects and organizes the
DNA and results in the formation of Chromatin. What is this organic compound the DNA is
wrapped around?


7. DNA is called a double helix because it is made up of two strands. The strands are joined together by
certain nucleotides pairing-up. Which bases can pair up with each other?


8. If humans have a diploid number of 46, what is the haploid number and the triploid number for humans?



For the two following questions, you may have to use a dictionary or the internet to answer.

9. What does Extraction mean?


10. What does Solubility mean?


11. What does Interface mean (in relation to two liquids)?






Lab Instructions for Extraction of DNA.

1. Take one of the plastic bags on your lab tray and find the mass and record it on
your lab sheet (to be given out in class the day of the lab).

2. Place one of the substances (Banana or Strawberry) into the bag and find its
mass and record it on your lab sheet.

3. Repeat for the remaining substance.

4. Add about 6 ml of the salt solution (6% NaCl) to each bag, and seal the bags.

5. Mash-up the substances real well, try to break up any large chunks, make sure
that you make a mush of the materials (like baby food).

6. Carefully open up the bags and add about 1 ml of the detergent solution to each
bag. Seal the bags and GENTLY mix the mush with the detergent. Avoid
producing bubbles or foam.

7. Add ~1 g of meat tenderizer and gently mix.

8. Carefully hold the baggie by one of the upper corners so that the mush
accumulates in a corner of the baggie. Carefully pour or trickle down about
10-20 ml of alcohol down a side crease of the baggie. The alcohol should
form a layer on the top.

9. Observed any materials that appear at the interface and then make a sketch of
the bag.

10. Very carefully, try to spool the material on a rod (plastic, glass, or wooden).

11. Make a sketch of the spooled material.

12. Take each of the spooled material and place it onto a piece of filter paper (side
by side). Which substance yielded the most DNA?

Lab modified from DNA Extractions A Starting Point for Biochemical Inquiry, by Karen E. Kalumuck.
Exploratorium Teacher Institute.


Data Table and Observation


Weight of Plastic
Bag
Weight of Plastic
Bag + Strawberry
Weight of
Strawberry




Weight of Plastic
Bag
Weight of Plastic
Bag +
_____________
Weight of

_____________






Sketch of bag with strawberry sample after the
addition of alcohol.

Sketch of bag with ___________sample after the
addition of alcohol.

Post Lab Questions

1. Which of the two (strawberry or banana) did you expect to yield more DNA? How did you
come up with this prediction?




2. Which of the two (strawberry or banana) actually yielded the most amount of DNA? Why do
you think that occurred?





3. Meat tenderizers contain one of two enzymes: Bromelain and Papain. Bromelain is a mixture
of protein-digesting (called proteolytic) enzymes found in pineapples. Papain is also a
proteolytic enzyme, but instead of being found in pineapples, it is found in papayas. Why is
meat tenderizer used in your lab to help you extract DNA?





4. Soap is a substance that is used to break down lipids and make them more water soluble.
Why do you think we used a soap solution to help us extract DNA from our substances?




5. After adding and mixing the soap solution with your samples, what was the purpose of
filtering the samples?




6. Why was it important that the alcohol we used was of a high percentage (91%) and very cold
to help us extract the DNA from our samples (what is DNA like in alcohol and why such a high
percentage)?