Extract DNA From a Banana
Biology Experiment - How to Extract DNA From a Banana
Introduction
Extract DNA From a Banana: What do you have in common with a banana? Even though we might not look alike, all living things—bananas and people included—are made up of the same basic material.
Just like houses are made up of smaller units such as bricks, all living things are made up trillions of microscopic building blocks called cells. Within an organism, each cell contains a complete set of "blueprints". These directions determine the organism's characteristics.
Background
If we could zoom in on a single, tiny cell, we could see an even teenier "container" inside called a nucleus. It holds a stringy substance called DNA, which is like a set of blueprints, or instructions. DNA contains a code for how to build a life-form and put together the features that make that organism unique. Segments, or pieces, of DNA are called "genes". In living things, such as us, each gene determines something about our bodies—a trait. In our DNA there are genes that are responsible for hair color, eye color, earlobe shape and so on. We get our DNA from our parents. Some characteristics, like eye color, are pretty much entirely determined by DNA. Some are determined both by DNA and by your environment as you grow up, like how tall you will be as an adult. And some traits are not very directly tied to DNA at all, like the kind of books you like to read.
Just like us, banana plants have genes and DNA in their cells, and just like us, their DNA determines their traits. Using only our eyes, we couldn't see a single cell or the DNA inside of it. If we remove DNA from millions of cells, however, we will be able to view it without a microscope. That is what we will do today!
Materials & Tools:
Onion (2),Ethanol, Water, Dish Washing Liquid, Salt ,Petri Dish, Beakers, Cutting Board, Tea Strainer, Cutter, Tea Spoon, Match Box, Spirit Lamp, Tripod Stand with Wire Gauze, Blender/Mixer
Method:
- Take an onion or banana, peel it and chop into small pieces.
- Take about 30ml water in a beaker.
- Add one teaspoon of salt in the beaker and stir.
- And two teaspoons of liquid the solution and stir well, avoiding bubble formation.
- Put the chapped onions in the blender.
- Also add the solution in the beaker to the blender.
- Blend them for about one or two minutes to get a smooth mixture
- Pour the mixture from the blender into a beaker.
- Heat the mixture for about 1-2 minutes, stirring it from time to time.
- Put the tea strainer on a beaker and filter the mixture.
- Take ethanol in a petro dish.
- Pour the filtrate gently into ethanol.
- Observe the DNA strands appearing in the ethanol.
