Why does strawberries have dna

Place one strawberry per student in a plastic baggie and remove most of the air. Mash the strawberries with your hands. Carefully strain the mashed strawberry over a bowl or beaker and retain the liquid portion. How does what you observe in your DNA sample relate to what you know about its chemical structure?

Update your browser to view this website correctly. Update my browser now. Background DNA is present in every cell of plants and animals. Strawberry Salt. Preparation Place one strawberry per student in a plastic baggie and remove most of the air. Procedure Add strawberry puree into plastic cup. Add 3 drops of dish soap and STIR with a toothpick. Add 3 drops of salt solution and STIR with a toothpick. Add the tube of ice-cold isopropyl alcohol. Wait and watch the DNA precipitate from the solution.

Wrap the strands of DNA around a toothpick. After you added the cold rubbing alcohol to the filtered strawberry liquid, the alcohol should have precipitated the DNA out of the liquid while the rest of the liquid remained in solution. A single strand of DNA is extremely tiny, too tiny to see with the naked eye, but because the DNA clumped in this activity you were able to see just how much of it three strawberries have when all of their octoploid cells are combined!

This activity brought to you in partnership with Science Buddies. Already a subscriber? Sign in. Thanks for reading Scientific American. Create your free account or Sign in to continue. See Subscription Options. Go Paperless with Digital. Build a Cooler. Get smart. Observe the line between the strawberry mixture and the alcohol.

You will notice a white thread-like cloud appearing at this line. This is strawberry DNA. The DNA will clump together and float to the top of the alcohol layer. Skip to menu Skip to content Skip to footer. Site search Search. Site search Search Menu. Strawberry DNA extraction activity. What you'll need to get started Strawberries Zip-closure sandwich bag DNA extracting solution mix about 1 tablespoon of dish detergent and 1 teaspoon of salt into 1 cup of water Plastic cup Gauze, cheesecloth or coffee filter Rubber band Test tube or smaller cup Dropper or spoon Denatured alcohol eg.

Conducting your experiment Place a strawberry in a zip-closure bag and remove most of the air before you seal the bag. Add 2 tablespoons of the DNA extracting solution.

Continue mixing and mashing the bag in your hand.