DIY DNA Extraction from Fruit

Hi, I'm Olympia Davison and today I'm here at the DNA Learning Center to show you how to extract DNA from a fruit at home in your own kitchen. DNA stands for Deoxyribonucleic Acid. And why would we want to extract DNA? Well, for starters, scientists want to extract DNA because it gives them a blueprint of the organism so they can learn more about it. Doctors, on the other hand, want to extract DNA so that they can screen it. for any genetic mutations or diseases the person or thing could have. First, you have to gather your materials. I've already done this, but I'm going to take you through which materials you will need. So the first material you will need is some lovely fruit to extract DNA from. I'm using strawberries, but raspberries and bananas work just as well. Then you'll need a knife. Be careful, it is sharp, for cutting that lovely fruit. Then you will need a plastic bag. A plastic bag with a zip lock is preferable because when you smush the fruit to lice the cells and licing is just breaking open the cell wall. This will keep it a little bit cleaner in the process. Then you will want some scissors. These two are very sharp. Don't cut yourself. But you'll use it to cut a corner in this plastic bag once you smush the fruit. Then you need plant soap buffer. Plant soap buffer is a mixture of woolite or any like clothing or dishwashing detergent, water and a pinch of salt, so just half, half and a pinch. Then you'll need a pipette. At home if you don't have one of these, I know I don't, you can use an eyedropper or a turkey baster, they'll work the same way. Then you need some plastic cups or a test tube. So I'm using a test tube for your plant sample. But you could use a cup or a little Dixie cup or a medicine measuring cup. They all work as long as you can see through them. Then you'll need coffee paper. It comes in all shapes and sizes. But you just want it to separate the DNA liquid from the strawberry pulp. Then you'll need a cup or a bowl for a water bath. And the water bath just helps with the lysing of the cells, so it'll help the plant cell buffer break apart the cell membrane to let out that DNA that you want. Then you need a thermometer. This is just a turkey thermometer for Thanksgiving time. This is good. Then you'll need ethanol. You'll need ethanol. Then you'll need a plastic loop. If you don't have one of these at home, you could use a tongue depressor. Popsicle stick or a toothpick to get the DNA out of the ethanol once it's gathered. Then you need a sharpie pen if you're doing this with other people so you can mark which DNA is theirs and which is yours. Then lastly you'll need a rack or a bowl and so I use kind of a raised glass cups that the stuff that can spill and doesn't stand up on its own will not fall and make a mess. Okay, now I've cleared my table and I'm ready to work. First of all, you take your fruit and you would cut it into small pieces and put it in the plastic bag, as I've already done. Then you want to smush the fruit, but again, I've already done this to speed up time. And here is the strawberry pulp that I've smushed. Once the fruit is pulverized, you put it into the corner and you cut. in where the strawberry is not. And make sure not to spill it all over the table once you've cut it. Then you take your empty test tube, open the cap, and then you pour the liquid into the cup, trying to limit the spillage. And it should be about three quarters of the way. Okay, then you want to add five milliliters of plant soap buffer. If you want to have exact measuring like these test tubes do, you could use a pipette or at home one of those small medicine measures that you find on cough syrup. So I'll add 5 milliliters of this, which will take it to the top. Then you put your cap back on, limit spillage, and you make sure it's tight. Hold it down. Now start shaking for as long as you want, maybe thirty seconds. ...seconds to a minute. This process breaks up the nuclear membrane, which houses the DNA inside of it, and the DNA is what you want. So that's what we're doing now. Shake for a while. Now that I've shaken it enough, I'm ready to go on to the next step and get my water bath to the kettle. So I take... I've heated up water and I'll take a bowl and I'll pour about half of the water into the bowl. Carefully, it's very hot. Now I have to measure the temperature. I'm going to use my turkey basting temperature thing and it should be about 60 degrees Celsius. It's at 60. It is good to go. And now we have a water bath. For 5 to 10 minutes, you leave your... Put the cap on nice and tight. For 5 to 10 minutes, you leave your sample in the water bath. Or, if you have a cup, make sure the cup is balanced, you may have to hold it. So now I've spent about 5 to 10 minutes with this in the water bath, so I can take it out, shake off the water and put it back into my holding rack. And I'm going to get a cup to filter out the pulp with the coffee paper. Put that in there. And I'm going to pour this very carefully, not to make a mess, into the cup. into the coffee filter paper. Put that back. And so now this actually will take forever if we don't squeeze it. So a trick is just to squeeze it out. Oh, it smells like strawberries. Just squeeze that out into the cup, trying to get the least amount of pulp as possible. There we go. Now we have to pour the DNA liquid back into the strawberry test tube. So squeeze the cup to make pouring a little easier. Pour it back. There's a little piece of pulp, but it's not the end of the world. I'm just going to put that to the side. Now we have to get the ethanol to pull the DNA out of this mixture. So put this back in the rack, open up the ethanol, and then take the pipette and squeeze it and get about 5 mL of ethanol out of the tube. Just put that back. Now, This gets a little complicated. So take your strawberry tube, put it at about a 45 degree angle, and slowly pour the ethanol in at a slant. Do not, do not mix it, because if you mix it, that won't work. You want the ethanol to sit on top to pull the DNA out. I can already see it coming. There we go. It's about 5 milliliters. And we've got it. Now you can wait about 30 seconds, but you'll see this see-through, bubbly, stringy-looking thing coming up into the top. And guess what? That's DNA! You've just successfully... extracted DNA from a strawberry and now we have to get it out of the mixture so I will take my loop but you can take anything else you want and I'll just do like a little circular motion pull the DNA out Here you go! Here is the extracted strawberry DNA. Congratulations, you've just done your first DNA extraction. If you want some more cool videos or links, look down below.

Doctors, on the other hand, want to extract DNA so that they can screen it. for any genetic mutations or diseases the person or thing could have. First, you have to gather your materials. I've already done this, but I'm going to take you through which materials you will need.

So the first material you will need is some lovely fruit to extract DNA from. I'm using strawberries, but raspberries and bananas work just as well. Then you'll need a knife.

Be careful, it is sharp, for cutting that lovely fruit. Then you will need a plastic bag. A plastic bag with a zip lock is preferable because when you smush the fruit to lice the cells and licing is just breaking open the cell wall. This will keep it a little bit cleaner in the process. Then you will want some scissors.

These two are very sharp. Don't cut yourself. But you'll use it to cut a corner in this plastic bag once you smush the fruit.

Then you need plant soap buffer. Plant soap buffer is a mixture of woolite or any like clothing or dishwashing detergent, water and a pinch of salt, so just half, half and a pinch. Then you'll need a pipette.

At home if you don't have one of these, I know I don't, you can use an eyedropper or a turkey baster, they'll work the same way. Then you need some plastic cups or a test tube. So I'm using a test tube for your plant sample. But you could use a cup or a little Dixie cup or a medicine measuring cup.

They all work as long as you can see through them. Then you'll need coffee paper. It comes in all shapes and sizes.

But you just want it to separate the DNA liquid from the strawberry pulp. Then you'll need a cup or a bowl for a water bath. And the water bath just helps with the lysing of the cells, so it'll help the plant cell buffer break apart the cell membrane to let out that DNA that you want. Then you need a thermometer.

This is just a turkey thermometer for Thanksgiving time. This is good. Then you'll need ethanol. You'll need ethanol.

Then you'll need a plastic loop. If you don't have one of these at home, you could use a tongue depressor. Popsicle stick or a toothpick to get the DNA out of the ethanol once it's gathered. Then you need a sharpie pen if you're doing this with other people so you can mark which DNA is theirs and which is yours. Then lastly you'll need a rack or a bowl and so I use kind of a raised glass cups that the stuff that can spill and doesn't stand up on its own will not fall and make a mess.

Okay, now I've cleared my table and I'm ready to work. First of all, you take your fruit and you would cut it into small pieces and put it in the plastic bag, as I've already done. Then you want to smush the fruit, but again, I've already done this to speed up time.

And here is the strawberry pulp that I've smushed. Once the fruit is pulverized, you put it into the corner and you cut. in where the strawberry is not. And make sure not to spill it all over the table once you've cut it.

Then you take your empty test tube, open the cap, and then you pour the liquid into the cup, trying to limit the spillage. And it should be about three quarters of the way. Okay, then you want to add five milliliters of plant soap buffer. If you want to have exact measuring like these test tubes do, you could use a pipette or at home one of those small medicine measures that you find on cough syrup. So I'll add 5 milliliters of this, which will take it to the top.

Then you put your cap back on, limit spillage, and you make sure it's tight. Hold it down. Now start shaking for as long as you want, maybe thirty seconds. ...seconds to a minute. This process breaks up the nuclear membrane, which houses the DNA inside of it, and the DNA is what you want.

So that's what we're doing now. Shake for a while. Now that I've shaken it enough, I'm ready to go on to the next step and get my water bath to the kettle. So I take...

I've heated up water and I'll take a bowl and I'll pour about half of the water into the bowl. Carefully, it's very hot. Now I have to measure the temperature. I'm going to use my turkey basting temperature thing and it should be about 60 degrees Celsius.

It's at 60. It is good to go. And now we have a water bath. For 5 to 10 minutes, you leave your...

Put the cap on nice and tight. For 5 to 10 minutes, you leave your sample in the water bath. Or, if you have a cup, make sure the cup is balanced, you may have to hold it. So now I've spent about 5 to 10 minutes with this in the water bath, so I can take it out, shake off the water and put it back into my holding rack. And I'm going to get a cup to filter out the pulp with the coffee paper.

Put that in there. And I'm going to pour this very carefully, not to make a mess, into the cup. into the coffee filter paper.

Put that back. And so now this actually will take forever if we don't squeeze it. So a trick is just to squeeze it out.

Oh, it smells like strawberries. Just squeeze that out into the cup, trying to get the least amount of pulp as possible. There we go.

Now we have to pour the DNA liquid back into the strawberry test tube. So squeeze the cup to make pouring a little easier. Pour it back.

There's a little piece of pulp, but it's not the end of the world. I'm just going to put that to the side. Now we have to get the ethanol to pull the DNA out of this mixture.

So put this back in the rack, open up the ethanol, and then take the pipette and squeeze it and get about 5 mL of ethanol out of the tube. Just put that back. Now, This gets a little complicated. So take your strawberry tube, put it at about a 45 degree angle, and slowly pour the ethanol in at a slant.

Do not, do not mix it, because if you mix it, that won't work. You want the ethanol to sit on top to pull the DNA out. I can already see it coming. There we go. It's about 5 milliliters.

And we've got it. Now you can wait about 30 seconds, but you'll see this see-through, bubbly, stringy-looking thing coming up into the top. And guess what? That's DNA! You've just successfully...

extracted DNA from a strawberry and now we have to get it out of the mixture so I will take my loop but you can take anything else you want and I'll just do like a little circular motion pull the DNA out Here you go! Here is the extracted strawberry DNA. Congratulations, you've just done your first DNA extraction. If you want some more cool videos or links, look down below.

Transcript for:DIY DNA Extraction from Fruit

Transcript for:
DIY DNA Extraction from Fruit