Thursday, February 9, 2017

A Cup of Strawberry DNA Ice Cream


A Cup of Strawberry DNA Ice Cream 

     Strawberries are great.  They're one of my favorite ice cream flavors.  They make great smoothies and are wonderful for DNA extraction.  Recently, we were put to the test of extracting DNA from a strawberry.  First, we created a liquid solution made of detergent, salt, and water and placed a strawberry into it.  Putting the mixture into a Ziploc bag, we proceeded to SMASH the strawberries into a liquid pulp.  Imagine placing a strawberry in a blender, so it would come out mushy and sticky. This would expose the DNA for us to utilize.  Using another solution of alcohol, we were able to extract the DNA from the strawberry.  The alcohol would break apart any bonds between the DNA and the strawberry.  The DNA itself turned out to be rather snot-like.  Despite the yucky appearance, the experiment was entertaining and fascinating at the same time.
Image result for strawberry dna extraction steps

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