Name: vivi stevenson

Date: 12/7/20
Period: 3
Background: Summarize the purpose of DNA extraction from plants, how it is different from DNA
extraction from other living organisms and the steps and purpose of each step:
To study or modify the genetic information of a plant, you have to extract and manipulate the
plant’s genomic DNA. Most plant DNA extractions begin with a cell-grinding step to burst open
plant cells. Salt is often used in an extraction solution. It precipitates proteins and covers DNA
molecules' negative charge leading to a better DNA isolation. As cells dump their contents into
an extraction solution. Cell debris settles at the bottom. The supernatant can be poured off. To
retrieve long strands of DNA long rods can be used as a method.

Purpose: Write the purpose in your own words

What are the most successful procedures for genomic, chromosomal DNA extraction from a
plant sample?
Can the amount of DNA extracted be increased with modifications to the procedure?

Materials: List these after you have found a procedure and modified it so that you can do it at
home. Those listed in the book are suggestions but your list should reflect what you actually
used:
● Isopropyl alcohol
● Dish soap
● Salt
● Water
● Plastic bag
● Beaker or test tube
● Measuring cups
● Strainer
● Tweezers
● Safety goggles
● Paper towel

Procedure:PLEASE READ THROUGH EVERYTHING IN THIS DOC BEFORE YOU START

AND ASK CLARIFICATION QUESTIONS!
Plan to use at least 5 g of plant material, equivalent to 2 strawberries or a large handful of
spinach. Goal is to extract long strands of intact DNA that can be spooled. Being gentle with the
DNA so you don’t break the polymer strands and keeping it cold will improve results.
This is a procedure for DNA extraction from E.coli we did last year, use it as a guide but you will
have to research procedures specifically for extraction from plants, and one that can be done at
home with household objects:
1. Put Isopropyl alcohol or rubbing alcohol in freezer
2. Measure 100ml of water then add 10 ml of dish soap and half of teaspoon salt to the
water and mix it up(This is our extraction liquid)
3. Put ur fruit in a plastic bag and add extraction liquid after it
4. Remove as much excess air as possible from the bag and seal it
5. Smash your fruit with ur hands for about 2 minutes until there are no big pieces
6. Use a strainer to separate the liquid
7. Transfer the liquid to a small beaker(cup of glass)
8. Add 5 ml of iced Isopropyl alcohol or rubbing alcohol and wait for a few minutes
9. You should see a whitish layer forming at the top of the cup, this is DNA. Pull out the
DNA with tweezers and set it aside on top of a piece of paper
Overall Procedure:
You will follow steps 2-5 in the plant extraction lab procedure pages above, subbing in
household items and scaling amounts of extraction and alcohol solutions to be reasonable
amounts.
1 hr research
1 hr planning in groups
1-2 hrs performing the 3 trials

Data:Record observations at each step in a data table

Steps observations pictures

separated liquid before it ● thick liquid no picture because it wasn’t

went into the freezer ● Pink from the soap the end result
● Fully combined

dna mix after it was in the ● white almost fluffy dna

freezer on the top
● Pink watery liquid in
the middle
● Thick white liquid on
the bottom

Data Analysis/Conclusion: Did you successfully extract and spool DNA in each trial? What is
your evidence? (show pictures) What problems did you encounter and how did you address
them? How could you improve this experiment if you did it again?
We were able to extract the DNA and spool the banana DNA however, I think if we left it in

the freezer for a bit longer then we could have spooked the DNA better. It would have been

much easier. Otherwise I think we successfully separated the DNA from the other pieces in the

mixture. We saw three layers in the glass. The bottom of the glass contained the “waste” which

was not needed for the experiment. The middle layer in the glass was the dish soap we used I
suspect. The top layer of the glass contains the DNA from the banana that we were able to

extract. The only problem we faced was not having the DNA cold enough to spool well. In order

to fix this problem we left it in the freezer for a little bit longer so they were easier to spool. We

could have improved this experiment by possibly using more than one fruit to compare and

contrast the results of the experiment. Rather than only using a banana.