Easy DNA Extraction

DNA can be extracted from any living or possibly once living organism. It can be done quite easily in your own kitchen. The first thing you need is a DNA source which could be strawberries, bananas, your own saliva, peas, and so on. I would recommend trying strawberries initially since I have had substantial success using them to obtain large DNA samples. Information for this procedure was obtained from DNA Extraction from Wikipedia the free encyclopedia.

The first thing you need to do with your sample is to crush it into small pieces. This can most easily be done with a blender. A blender is not essential though. You can even crush the sample with your hands into a cup of water. In the case of strawberries, I would just crush one strawberry in a cup of water, or blend 1 strawberry in a volume of water equal to a cup. Once blended for 10 seconds or until it is thoroughly broken up, and then you should add a half a tablespoon of salt, a pinch of meat tenderizer, and 2 tablespoons of soap. The salt helps with the the precipitation of DNA. The meat tenderizer aids in the removal of proteins associated with the DNA.The purpose of the soap is to break the cell membranes of the cells in the strawberry and release their DNA into solution. Stir your sample gently for 15 seconds. You should let your sample sit for about 10 minutes in this mixture.

After the sample has sat for 10 minutes, then it's necessary to filter it. All you need is two cups and a paper towel. In one cup pour your sample. In the second cup place a paper towel over the top. Pour the sample through the paper towel into the second cup. To increase flow you may want to increase the amount of sample over the paper to increase pressure. When you have obtained a few tablespoons worth of sample, then you are ready to take the next step.

The next step involves precipitating the DNA out of the solution in the cup. The way to do this is to pour cold ethanol over the sample. You can use the 70 % isopropyl alcohol found at your local store. This will work. Make sure you slowly pour an equal amount of alcohol as there is sample. You should see a white substance rise to the top. Congratulations you have successfully extracted DNA from your sample.

Now you can try to extract DNA from another sample!

DNA Extraction from Wikipedia the free encyclopedia, Wikipedia