Lab Report

Strawberry DNA Extraction

Members:
Sirinda
Yingumnuay
Wararat
Sumetawenunt
Phatsawan Chivisetpone
Pitchaya Areekarnlerd
Krittanut Teddontre

11-1
11-1
11-1
11-1
11-1

(Prim)
(Eye)
(Mild)
(Petch)
(Nut)

Introduction:
When we talk about DNA, it is what almost every organism has in order to contain their
genetic information which is a short term for deoxyribonucleic acid. In eukaryotes, most of the
DNA are contained in the nucleus of every cells and some of them are stored in mitochondria [3].
Because the area of the cell is so small, DNA needs to be tightly packed together into molecules
called chromosomes. As we all knew that it carries genetic information for living organisms.
Those information is stored in the form of chemical bases that acts like a code. It is what a DNA
is made from, a chemical building blocks called nucleotides which are composed of three things;
a phosphate group, a sugar group, and a nucleotide [6]. These things are linked to the
information together in a chain that later becomes a strand and then again connected to the
other strands by hydrogen bonds. Whereas DNA is a double helix structure that has many base
pairs attached to a sugar-phosphate backbone.

Figure 1. hydrogen bond between two strands[9]

There are four types of bases; adenine (A), thymine (T), guanine (G), and cytosine (C).
While adenine (A) and guanine (G) belong to a purine nucleotide , thymine (T) and cytosine (C)

belong to pyrimidine nucleotide. Researches have founded out that almost 99 percent of bases
contained in human are the same. These bases will be functioned if it pairs in a correct place on
the strand in sequence. For example, the adenine (A) should pair with thymine (T) and guanine
(G) should pair with cytosine (C).

Figure 2. Nucleotide base pairs[12]

Strawberry is also a fruit which we considered as one of the living organisms, which
means that it definitely has genes that were composed of DNA [4]. Because everything contain
genes, thats the reason why scientists can do things such as cloning to put ones gene into
anothers, and strawberries is a sample that we will use to do an experiment about in this lab.
There are many ways to separate DNA from living organisms, but in this experiment we
use the extraction method by using detergent and alcohol. DNA extraction is simply defined as
the removal of DNA from the cells. First we need to smash the strawberry to increase its surface
area. In the next step, we use isopropyl alcohol to extract DNA since its insoluble in water [5].
Therefore, when the cell meets the alcohol, those other part accept DNA will be dissolved and
DNA would be the only thing that is left visible from the solution. The DNA isolation is one of the
most well known techniques in the study of DNA, in which the DNA extraction is one of the steps
in the process[1].

Materials:
3 Strawberries
Isopropyl alcohol (10 mL)

Dish detergent solution (25 mL)

Salt ( spatula)
Water (18 mL)
Graduated cylinders (50 mL)
Beakers (250 mL x1 and 50 mL x1)
Petri dish
Stirring rod
Tweezers
Spatula
Zip-lock bag
Cheesecloth

Method:
1. Freeze the bottle of isopropyl alcohol in the freezer.
2. Measure about 18 mL of water by using 50 mL graduated cylinder.
3. Pour the 18 mL water into the 250mL beaker.
4. Add another 25 mL of dish detergent solution and spatula of salt into the same
beaker.
5. Use the stirring rod to swirl the solution carefully in order to mix the solution.
6. Put the strawberry and a mixed solution (from step 5) into a ziplock.
7. Seal the bag with as less air inside the bag as possible.
8. Flat or mash the strawberry in the bag so there were no big pieces of strawberry
left.
9. Pour the mixture into the 250mL beaker by using a cheesecloth to filter the
mixture.
10. Squeeze the mixture so we got more solution then pour it into the 50mL beaker.
11. Add 10 mL of chilled isopropyl alcohol into the solution
12. Observe and remove the white substance from the solution by using the tweezer
onto the petri dish
13. Write down the observation.

Results:

Figure 3. A strawberrys DNA

Colour

Pinkish/Milky-white

Appearance

Sticky fluid, mucus-like

Odor

no odor

Discussion:
In order to extract DNA from a cell, the association between membrane and protein must
be separated, or broken apart, because DNA is a genetic material that is inside the cell.
Smashing the strawberry will increase the surface area for the reaction that is going to occur,
otherwise the reaction will happen slower, and destroy the cell wall. In addition, cells are also
composed of 2 layers of cell membrane; one is surrounding around the cell (plasma membrane)
and another is surrounding around the nucleus (nuclear envelope). In consequence, the
detergent is added to break the membranes. Detergent is mainly soap which help to capture
substances like lipids and proteins. When soap molecules come closer to lipid molecules, they
will organize themselves in spheres [ 8] .

Figure 4. Formation between soap molecules and lipid molecules

As cell membrane composed of proteins and phospholipids, detergent will capture

proteins and lipids from the cell membrane which will make the membrane break apart and
separate.

Figure 5. Detergent captures lipids and proteins.

Chromatin is composed of histone protein and DNA. The salt is added to break histone
protein apart, releasing the DNA strands [ 14] . In addition, salt also helps to neutralize the
charge on the backbone of the DNA, which made the DNA became less hydrophilic and easily
to precipitate [ 7] . Lastly, DNA is not soluble in alcohol such as isopropanol. When the
isopropanol is iced, it helps to accelerate the flocculation, which is a process that will gather
colloids to formed floc or flake, and form larger complex. Therefore, alcohol is less dense than
water, so the precipitate of nucleic acids float on top of the isopropanol.
After weve observed the result from the experiment, the DNA that we see is not a single
strand of a DNA because it is too small to be seen by our naked eye. Because of the process
that it pass through helps to enlarge the molecule, do the DNA forms into octopoid cells which is
big enough to make it able to see without a microscope [ 2] .

In addition, human DNA also can be extracted, but not in the exact same protocol. The
reason is we dont have cell wall to smash and human DNA is much smaller than strawberry
DNA. Cell that is going to take out has to be very small such as cheek cell. The protocol on
extracted human DNA is more gentle and complex than extracted strawberry DNA [10 ] .
Adding to this, DNA extraction is the process that is used to separate the DNA of living
things out of its cell. However, the extraction of DNA is very important for biotechnology. It is the
starting point for numerous applications, ranging from fundamental research to routine
diagnostic and therapeutic decision-making. DNA extraction is also essential to determining the
unique characteristics of DNA, including its size, shape and function.
Furthermore, many things could be done by the extracted DNA. For example, it can be
use to find an abnormal disease or a disorder that happened on the DNA. Also it may use to
identify species and living things since each species have different pattern of nucleotide base
pair arrangements.
Moreover, from the experiment, our groups strawberry DNA is like a sticky fluid with the
colour of pinkish-white which doesnt look like what weve expected. The reason is the DNA that
we see is in a large complex - not strands like what weve seen in the pictures from the
textbook. It does not look like what weve expected because at first we thought that it would
shows a certain characteristics that would allow us to be able to recognise it as DNA. Such as
some sort of string-like figure or some traits that we would be able to route it to be a doublehelix structure like what weve learnt.
Lastly, we cannot see the structure of the extracted DNA by using light microscope
because the light microscope cannot show us very small details of the DNA. The DNA is
something that contains lots of information so it has a very complex pattern and structure.
Thats why only high technology microscopes are enable to reach that level of structure
because the amplification and the focus of it is much higher than the light microscope. With the
light microscope, we can only just use it to observe its appearances in the form of chromosomes
during cell division, but not in the deep structure or even in its normal form inside the nucleus.
However, even one of the highest resolution microscope, the electron microscope, can only
recently capture its double helix due to the improvements of technology[13].

Figure 6. Picture of DNA from electron microscope..[14]

Conclusion
From the experiment, we have learnt that DNA is contained in the cells of every living
organisms even in the strawberry by using DNA extraction method. The DNA is a result from the
extraction appeared as a white sticky liquid.

Reference
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