Greenstein 1

Jake Greenstein
Mrs. Miller
Biology 9, Period 6
January 21, 2008

“Berry full of DNA”

Question: What properties of DNA can be observed in a test tube?

Materials: self-sealing plastic freezer bag, strawberry, 10 mL detergent solution, cheesecloth,

funnel, test tube, ice-cold ethanol, test tube, stirring rod, test tube rack, microcentrifuge tube
(optional)

Procedure:
1) Place one strawberry in a self-sealing plastic freezer bag. Press the air out of the bag, and seal
it carefully. Mash the bagged strawberry with your fist for 2 minutes.
2) Add the detergent solution to the bag. Press the air out carefully and seal the bag.
3) Mash the bagged strawberry for 1 minute.
4) Set up your filtration apparatus as shown below. If a test tube rack is available, place the test
tube securely in the rack.
5) Pour the liquid extract into the filtration apparatus, and let it drip directly into the test tube as
shown.
6) When the test tube is about 1/8 full, remove the funnel. Discard any extra mashed strawberry
pulp with the cheesecloth.
7) Slowly drizzle cold ethanol along the side of the test tube, until the test tube is about half full
of liquid. The ethanol should form a separate layer on top of the filtered extract.
8) Dip the loop or rod into the tube to where the ethanol and extract layers meet, as shown
below. Gently twirl the loop or rod. Keep the tube at eye level so that you can see what is
happening. Observe the characteristics of the DNA as it precipitates (clump together). If a
microcentrifuge tube is available, place some of the DNA you prepared into the tube. Be sure to
cap the tube tightly. This will give you an opportunity to examine the DNA closely.

Analysis: 1) in the 1930’s, Lionel Alloway did this to concentrate the “transforming factor.”
2) The purpose of the following are: a. break strawberry cells
b. make sure no debris gets into liquid
c. get rid of cell membrane
d. repels the DNA molecules which clumps the DNA
together
3) The strawberry has a lot of DNA in it and you can heat the DNA to see the extracted DNA.
4) SDS is a cleaning product that must be able to dissolve lipids and other membranes.
5) The cheesecloth removes cell organelles, broken cell walls, membrane fragments and all
debris. The filtered extract is a solution with DNA and some sugars and lipids.
6) The ethanol repels the DNA molecules and proteins; therefore, the DNA clumps together.
7) The DNA we extracted was a grayish-white substance that is very swirly and twisted like the
double-helix shape.
8) Strawberry cause it contains more DNA.
 Greenstein 2

9) It might be the same idea, but I bet it is much more complex and there are more steps.
10) Does strawberry and banana DNA have many sequences similar to human DNA?
Is ethanol used in human DNA extraction?