DNA Extraction Home Experiment

[ArenThomasian]

thank you so much <3

[aber719]

its just a home experiment people lol

[lebanesebasketballl]

where can i use the extracted DNA? how can this DNA self-replicate?? is it possible??

[fp9876]

thumbs up if your from Discovery College :)

[elizaharriette]

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA



[ConorC96]

Can you splice the extracted DNA with different DNA?

[Superdeduper739]

why didnt we do this in biology...

[W1A2R]

your left handed, hehe. im a good observer.:)

[TabbytabtabOmega]

can i inject this into a blueberry and get a hybrid bluesrawberry?

[MizzJbfan888]

what is the purpose of this project

[jcshieh]

@MizzJbfan888 The point for this experiment is just to actually be able to see DNA. Doing DNA extraction in general is used to take a closer look at the DNA for identification (such as paternity testing or in criminal cases) or to manipulate the DNA and make changes (genetic engineering).

[Colin2k41]

@jcshieh could you show how too dust for fingerprints?

[wereluva]

i dont rlly think smashing the strawberries breaks down the cell walls and membranes but instead it just separates the cells apart. i think its the water u add that actually makes the cells explode due to tonicity... 

[rippleffect11]

What can be done with the extracted DNA, at home, and how can it be preserved?

[jcshieh]

@rippleffect11 You can preserve it in the rubbing alcohol (isopropanol or ethanol). If you use a toothpick or bamboo skewer you can try to fish out the clump of DNA and put it in a little test tube or other container with the alcohol in it. Beyond that, what would you want to do with it?

[zhixiangteoh]

Erm, isit cold rubbing alcohol, dish washing soap, a cup, a spoon, strawberries and water?

[hamster130]

What the lab with your saliva and then you can pull it out? 

[jcshieh]

@hamster130 Try swishing Gatorade in your mouth (about a small Dixie cup's worth), bite on the insides of your cheek a bit, and spit into a glass. Proceed with the soap & alcohol steps.

[hamster130]

@jcshieh Alright Thanks Ill try that 

[CHeeRGiRL4eVeR21]

we did this lab in Biology. This video was used as an example so thanks (=

[MultiMoshpit]

can you use frozen veggies? eg., frozen peas?



[jcshieh]

@MultiMoshpit Yes - you might need a blender to help you mush up frozen fruits & veggies though. The cold might actually help too

[jbcampb2]

in*

[jbcampb2]

we did this is my Bio Lab a few weeks ago. really cool!

[spacemonkeyinfear]

Great Vid. I'm going to introdiuce these concepts to a grade 3 class here in Melbourne, I'm not a teacher, but a Dad that does a little classroom help. Thanks

[palewine]

Great video! I'm a high school science teacher. I don't know if you've thought about teaching or not, but you'd make a great teacher!

[samljer]

Use salt for better results.

Aside from DNA being inside the fatty cell wall

most of it is bounds to protien that is broken by sodium.

Youll improve results 1000x and reduce a 0 result chance.

[samljer]

Veggies and fruits that dont work will work if you apply a bit of heat "60*C"

for 5mins before doing the mixing to assist in cellular wall degradation.

For onions and garlic as an example, you would need some heat.

or youll get a tiny bit if any.

[aSmallSmil]

good jop

cooool ...

can u write all stipes and materrial ^^

caz i'm not well at english ^^ so I ned to read it

[jcshieh]

@aSmallSmil You can read the written out steps on the Tech Museum's website here: thetech.org/genetics/medicine.­php

[XSirApocalypseX]

Nice work!

[WhriterParsley0]

I want to use my sister! XD No i dont...

[WhriterParsley0]

Why not use my sister? XD

[jcshieh]

@WhriterParsley0 If you want to use your sister, get her to swish some Gatorade in her mouth for a while, chew on her cheek a bit and spit into a glass. Then proceed with the soap and alcohol steps and see what happens!

[ferrarimike23]

Are trying to create some type of monster!!!!!

Have you gone mad!!!!!!!!!

[littledevilgirlz]

doing this in Science class!! :D A for sure xD

[babyflower1231]

don't you have to keep putting the dna in cold ice water because the dna is tempeture sencitive

[BrandyRios1980]

This was informative. but very boring. A LONG 8 minutes and 40 seconds. Sorry, but it's true. Go yet you an 'A' though hun, cause you are very smart, just not very entertaining.

[amuralles1]

can i use that fir my science fair project

[JustinMac92]

I have a project going on, and the title is Human Genome Project. As we know that this project is to identify all genes in our body. By doing that, scientists have to extract DNA from our body. So I just want a clear picture, can I use this as the genetic technique for my project? Thanks.

[polos505]

HAAAAAAA breaking down cells????? yah right, you add water to the bag and break the cells? You are very confused about the cell structure, water and DNA lol. This experiment is very inaccurate.

[scoradtube]

@polos505 HAHAHAHA you are very confused yourself LOL smileyface winkeyface. Physical disruption is all you need to break open plant cell walls, especially very week walls such as you find in a soft fruit. TTFN!

What I want is a protocol to do this with ethanol and without the nasty soap so I can drink it afterwards. Maybe sonication to break open the nuclei? Most kitchens have sonicators, right?

[schmelnyk]

way to lay the smackdown,  but not in a (neurospora) crass (a) way

[MrFiv3]

interesting experiment ...!!!

i'll try in my school science fair....

wich me luck..^^

[zer0eclipse]

Nice at home experiment.

Why does the alcohol need to be cold though? Are you for some reason worried about degradation?

[jcshieh]

@zer0eclipse That's a good question and I'm not sure of the actual answer but I think the cold helps with the precipitation. My guess is that the cold helps keep the DNA from dissolving in the alcohol. Remember the sugar dissolving in water analogy - sugar dissolves in warm/hot water more easily than cold water. Maybe it's a similar principle here.

[Dhalaqudo]

what are the dependent and independent variables? because I think for this to be an "experiment" you have to measure some sort of numbers.

[giraffeh1]

Hi,

I would love to do this experiments with a group, but am finding it hard to get hold of rubbing alcohol in the UK, and methylated spirits is just too toxic. Would this work with something like vodka?

Thanks!

[jcshieh]

@giraffeh1 I haven't tried it myself and would expect that it wouldn't work as well (just because the alcohol content of vodka and other spirits tends to be on the low side compared to rubbing alcohol), but I've seen some instructions online using vodka. Try it out! (and let us know)

[Onecreationltd]

@jcshieh vodka works quite well, the chemicals we use in a lab are actually either methanol or ethanol aka 200 proof grain alcohol. Its actually a parlor trick to use vodka or another high proof alcohol. Oh and the cold alcohol question above? first, cold is to help keep the DNA strands together, the SLS (sodium lauryl sulfate) in the detergent is detrimental to the hydrogen bonds in DNA. second, Nucleic acids are actually still soluble in isopropyl alcohol, it however isnt soluble in ethanol.

[hashbrown567]

How do you know if it's DNA or if it's other proteins?

[jcshieh]

@hashbrown567 It is actually a combination of DNA, RNA and other proteins since the way we do this doesn't really purify the DNA away from other nucleic acids. But, one way you could tell is to use certain chemical reactions that only happen with DNA, or another way is by using a staining dye that sticks to DNA. There are some dyes you can get at a pet shop that are attracted to acids, like DNA and RNA, so you might be able to tell if it's acidic or basic by using this dye.

[prepare2fire]

You should of just used a blender at 3:10

[allu009]

gud work...:D

[MrFiv3]

can we use another plant??

[jcshieh]

@MrFiv3 Yes - other fruits & vegetables would work too but give varying amounts of DNA. Also, some plants are likely to be harder to break down just by squishing so you could try throwing them in a blender. Some other things that might work pretty well: kiwis, bananas, split peas, broccoli, spinach, chicken liver, sweetbread (cow thymus)

[jophi76]

i dont have any alchohal so could i use hydrogen peroxide instead?

[jcshieh]

@jophi76 You should experiment and find out! The reason we use alcohol is because DNA doesn't dissolve in it, so if DNA can dissolve in hydrogen peroxide, we shouldn't be able to see it when you pour the hydrogen peroxide in. But, I don't know for sure, so why don't you try it and report back?

[princessmj]

YOU ARE AH-MAZ-ING!!!! :)

I wanna be like you!! X)

Thanks sooo much for this video!!

[MoskowFreak1111]

your kitchen looks like my kitchen. LOLz

[TheStonerFace]

wow pretty cool

[biochem56]

I extracted my own DNA. look at my video

[Channypogosticks]

i dare you to drink it lawlz jk jk nice vid

[usagisinc]

hey, i had a lab in my scienc class tday, and you can use wheat germ

[jasonchuu]

honestly you dont need that many strawberries to extract dna from...I plenty from just 1/2 a strawberry...

[se7en1976]

Im going to mash up snake venom and inject it into a rat to make a super vermin that will breed and take over the world...

[deefromott]

youre going to make a super dead rat that's going nowhere.

[chemistrycoolguyscom]

DNA is in the nucleus you will need a electronic microscope about 300x you can see it i never seen the double helix

[nicklinkzelda]

I remember someone telling me that the DNA looks a lot like snot. I should try this experiment.

I wonder if there are any at home experiments someone has done to make recombinant DNA, then used agrobacterium to make a strange hydrid plant.

[biochem56]

see my video...except i didnt do the agrobacterium

[stemcdonnell]

hey dats really cool, i never seen dna

[punjabiblood15681]

THANK YOU O MUCH THIS IS PERFECT!

[prayfertrey]

Well, now, is the dna dissolving into seperate strands, or is it dissolving down to its seperate monomers? If monomers, you're not really seeing your "dna" pe se so much as clumps of nucleic acids, right.

[2Maniz]

yea even i had that question...and i think its monomers coz dna that we r seeing cant be in separate strands as it is all clumped together................does anyone know how to separate dna into separate strands so that further processing like gene replacement could be done?

[2Maniz]

yea even i had the same question...i think this dna contains monmers caz after all it is clumped but idk for sure.....

anw does anybody know how to separate dna into individual strands? i really need to know for my science project.....

thanks:)

[biochem56]

to splice you need an endonuclease to splice specific sections of the DNA. Then to view it you need to do a Northern Blot test to see the segmented strands

[jcshieh]

Restriction enzymes (or restriction endonucleases) are useful for chopping up DNA into short fragments - like cutting up a word into smaller letter fragments. Those small fragments can then be compared using gel electrophoresis. You're probably thinking of a Southern blot, which can be used to test the identity of the actual sequences contained in those fragments (like, is it ACGT or GCTA). A northern blot is very similar but used for RNA.

[biochem56]

ya prob. Im doing a thing in research with northern blot and i thought it was used for showing segmented DNA. Thanks for the correction

[loltehinternet]

SHE'S A WITCH!

[ByologyBoy]

I like this video : ) I'm a double major in Biology at the University of Toronto in my final year, and just did this experiment in one of my labs. We used lab equipment like centrifuges, and micropipettes, and various buffers, but the basic procedure was the same. I didn't think this could work at home with such basic ingredients and equipment, but  this is great!

[2Maniz]

it actually does work if we just use home things too! my frnds tried it in our colg lab for a project and it came along perfectly!

[pletcgm]

I have done this experiment at home too. It is pretty cool!

[MyOwnMusicTrios]

does the alcohol have to be cold?

[jcshieh]

It doesn't HAVE to be cold but it works better if it is.

[louisa969]

when its warm the enzyme in it breaks the dna molecules so it doesnt form properly

[biochem56]

alcohol does not have an enzyme. it would be call alcoholase if it did

[mademoiselle8t7]

i dont know that we can extract DNA in home...i always extract DNA in lab..

[sweetsmkbp]

As u add a sodium Chloride NaCl the sodium positive ions are attract to negatifly charge DNA molecule the result is the DNA will clump sou will get easier to flote in alcohol

[interstitialofficial]

Why should the dna rise up into the alcohol?

[jcshieh]

The DNA is less dense than all the cell goop so it's near the top of that layer. When you add the alcohol, the DNA near there will precipitate (clump up) since it can't dissolve in the alcohol.

[bionerd23]

aha, thanks! that just revealed a bit more detail of what is happening there.

i tried the same experiment, but with human (my) DNA instead.

also, microscoping the result is awesome as well, if i may add. =)

[hidekonoha]

Thank you so much!!!

I didn't understand anything when i did the experiment T_T but you explained very well

Thank you <3

(I'm from Chile, sorry if my encglish is poor)

[w0r1dpeace]

You're cute AND a biologist?  OMG heaven.

[dot1337]

awesome vid!

[coltrane8622]

great video

[jcshieh]

Thanks for the comment - I think the physical squishing does also do some breaking-down of the cell walls, but you are right that the detergent is what breaks down the lipid-based cell membrane within the cell walls to release the cytoplasm. There may be some cells bursting when we squish but most likely the detergent is a bigger aid.

[CleanFreeMedia]

Just to correct you, the cell wall's aren't the thing's that are being torn apart when you squish the strawberry but you are basically just disconnected one cell from another. So no cytoplasm spills out just yet. Now when you add liquid detergent, the cell membrane which are made of a double layered Liposome are broken away due to detergent's ability to disrupt the hydrophilic and the hydrophobic properties of the Lipids. Same thing applies for the nucleus.

[h0stI13]

chicks and strawberries...hot :)

but can you use that DNA u just extracted for gel electrophoresis or do u have to extract it some other way?

[jcshieh]

You *could* run this extracted DNA on a gel, but you would most likely just see a big blobby smear. To get neat bands of DNA fragments separated out by size, you need to chop up the extracted DNA with special proteins called restriction enzymes.

[estevezfam]

Thank you for posting your experiment. I thought it was very well done. My son has is doing DNA extraction for his science fair and this has helped tremendously. In particularly the explanation of the nucleus being surrounded by lipid. Well Done!

[layzxcrazy]

where do u get the rubbing alcohol? please reply fast :D

[jcshieh]

You can get rubbing alcohol (70-90% isopropanol or ethanol) at the grocery store or drug store.

[tmobileg]

Walmart, target, k-mart, kroger, etc...

[pullingonyourstrings]

Eight minutes and Fourty seconds of my life ill never get back >.>

[layzxcrazy]

tell that to someone who cares :]

[sleepcity]

Yeah, maybe next time just read a book then?

[mandarindragonet]

Dish washing fluid is important, because it contains lycing buffer, which breaks down each cell and destroys organelles. Also, you should add a 1% SDS solution to separate the DNA from the encasing proteins. I find ice cold 99% ethanol is the best alcohol to use, and is easily obtained by shaking the bottle.

[bdnesh]

the lady and the process both excellent

[atticus1244]

How long until the home gel electrophoresis and PCR videos are up? =oP

[jcshieh]

Home gel electrophoresis video might be up in 6 months or so... unfortunately, I haven't had much time to work on it. Home PCR might be much longer :)

[GrainDesu]

I've enjoyed this. Great video!

[eaglebeak65]

HA LOL "Now I want to go to Jamba Juice for some Liquidy Strawberry cell gut juice." LOL

Great vid.

[simpsonstewie]

I want to got to jamba juice to eat some cytoplasm.

[binababyluvsu]

is it bad if the soap bubbles went on the top of the alcohol??

[jcshieh]

The bubbles might make it hard to see the DNA or keep the DNA from coming out into the solution. You really want to try to keep a separate alcohol layer - but if you can see the DNA even if the bubbles are on top of the alcohol, it worked. If you don't see the DNA, it might be because there wasn't a separate enough alcohol layer.

[ncuphabuchopho]

i can see the dna but you are hot

[sk8terboy34]

haha thats really cool i gotta try that

[drpepperpepsicoke]

very interesting... and very cool

[ElDoubleG]

Excellent vid ! Have a look at my "Banana DNA extraction" protocol on my page...

[milokins777]

i am so going to try that

[pauloooemanooo]

excellent video i will try it