Our DNA

Extraction Lab
By Collena and Hallie

Step 1
We first had to decide if we wanted to extract
DNA from a strawberry or our saliva.
If you chose the strawberry you must then smash
the strawberry to get to the DNA.
If you chose your saliva, you then proceeded to
wash your mouth with salt water to collect cheek
cells.

Step 2
(strawberry)
Put 15mL
of DNA extraction buffer in the bag
and mush together

Buffer is made of water, dishwashing detergent,

and salt.
The buffer is used to break down the fat and
proteins that make up the cell membrane. The
salt in the solution cause the phosphate ends of
the DNA to come closer together, which will
make it easier to precipitate out of solution.
It works because soap and lipid(fat) molecules
are very similar

 The soap molecules will join with the

lipid molecules, therefore separating
them making it easier to obtain DNA
from the strawberry

Step 2 (saliva)
After you rinse your mouth with the salt solution,
mix with the detergent solution.
The detergent does pretty much the same thing
that the buffer does, but is a little different
because its an animal cell instead of a plant cell
It differs because when extracting plant DNA, you
must penetrate the cell wall opposed to an animal
cell, that doesnt have a cell wall.

Step 3
(strawberry)
After applying the buffer, take the
cheesecloth and filter out the liquid
strawberry from the strawberry chunks.
This will make it easier to collect the
DNA when you have finally extracted it.
You do not have to do this step with the
saliva because it is already liquid

Step 4
This step will be the same for both the
strawberry and the saliva.
Hold the conical tube at an angle and add 5mL of
95% ethanol
Ethanol comes from starches like corn, wheat,
and potatoes

The ethanol is used to concentrate the DNA into

clumps. This makes it easier to collect the DNA
from the solution.

The ethanol makes this possible because DNA is

not soluble in alcohol.

Step 5
This step is also the same for both
strawberries and saliva.
This is where you will actually collect
the DNA from the solution.

Step 6
After you have finally extracted the
DNA, then you can put it through the
gel electrophoresis.
This will separate the DNA fragments
and turn it into usable information

USES
This information could be used for:
Personal identification (identifying
twins)
Paternity and maternity tests

Diagnosis and cures for inherited

diseases

Criminal identification