Name: __________________________________________Date:_______

Investigation: What Plants Have DNA?

In this activity, you will attempt to extract DNA from several types of plants.
Your teacher will provide you with samples of plants, like bananas, kiwis, and
strawberries where you will follow steps to extract the DNA.

Prediction: Do you think some of the plants will have more DNA than others?
Why or why not?

Materials Needed:

-DNA Extraction Buff

deionized water, 50 m
Procedure: The procedure is the same for each sample, but you only detergent, 1 teaspoo
have time to do one extraction. Your teacher will assign you one type of
fruit or vegetable. -Strawberry, kiwi, ban
other fruits or vegeta
1. Add a strawberry or other sample to a Ziploc storage bag.
-Ziploc bag, Coffee fi
funnels
2. Add 20 ml of the DNA extraction buffer and mash the strawberry and
buffer for about one minute. -Beakers, or cups to

3. Place a funnel in a beaker and a coffee filter in the funnel. -Ethanol or 91% isop
(chilled)
4. Carefully open the bag with your sample and pour it into the
filter.

5. Fluid will slowly drip into the beaker, but this step takes a
while. The fluid in the beaker is called the filtrate and it may
contain DNA.

While you wait, answer questions #1-3 on the next page.

6. Transfer the liquid in the beaker to a test tube. (optional)

7. Slowly pour cold alcohol over the top of the filtrate in a single
layer, (about an inch thick) it may help to tilt the test tube or
beaker. DO NOT MIX.

8. White strands will form in the alcohol layer, use a stirring rod or
toothpick to spool the strands.

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1. Strawberries are octoploid, which means that have 8 copies of each chromosome. Remember that humans
are diploid, we have two copies of each chromosome. Do you think it would be easier to extract the DNA from
a strawberry or from a human? Explain your choice.
I think it would be easier to extract DNA from a strawberry, because there is
more DNA in a strawberry, and you won’t get out much from a human sample. You
would need many samples.

2. Humans have 23 pairs of chromosomes, for a total of 46.

Strawberries have 7 chromosomes, but they are octoploid.

56
How many total chromosomes would you find in a cell of a strawberry?(8x7)_____

Some Bananas are triploid (3 copies) and have 11 individual chromosomes.

33
How many total chromosomes would you find in a cell of a banana? _____

Kiwifruit are hexaploid (6 copies) and have 29 individual chromosomes.

174
How many total chromosomes would you find in a cell of a kiwi? ______

3. When you mashed your sample, you may notice that some bags have more fluid than others, particularly if
they had a larger fruit sample in the bag. The amount of fluid in a sample is called the VOLUME. How might
the volume of the sample affect the amount of DNA that you can collect?
If there is more volume then there would be more DNA to extract
because it would be a larger sample.

4. Describe the appearance of the DNA in your sample.

The DNA in the sample is thick and kind of a pinkish
color. It’s also slimy and gross.

5. Compare your sample to other groups in the room. Now you can answer the experimental question.
Yes
*** Do some groups appear to have more DNA than others? _______

Suggest at least one reason why these differences might be observed. (Hint, consider the questions on
this page.) There were different sizes of strawberries and some were more ripe than others.

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