7th Grade Life Science Students Extracted DNA

Life Science students extracted DNA from strawberries in lab today.  Ripe strawberries are an excellent source for extracting DNA because they are easy to pulverize and contain enzymes called pectinases and cellulases that help to break down cell walls. And most important, strawberries are octoploid.  This means that they have eight copies of each type of chromosome so there is a lot of DNA to isolate.  (We are diploid with two copies of each chromosome)

Students observed first hand that DNA is in the food that they eat and learned a simple method to extract DNA and why each step of that method is necessary due to the complex organization of DNA in cells.