Your goal is to use the DNA Extraction protocol that you have designed to carry
ID: 274657 • Letter: Y
Question
Your goal is to use the DNA Extraction protocol that you have designed to carry out your own DNA extraction experiment. Before you conduct this experiment, you may want to practice it first. For your experiment that you will be submitting , you can perhaps think about some of the following:
Now that you've either successfully learned about extracting DNA and coming up with a protocol from one source, you're ready to experiment further. Come up with your own experimental plan. Your experimental plan may involve one of these following ideas or your own creative questions. There are all sorts of cell types that you could think about isolating DNA from for this experiment.
Potential Ideas:
Experiment with other DNA sources. Which source gives you the most DNA? How can you compare them?
Experiment with different soaps and detergents. Do powdered soaps work as well as liquid detergents? How about shampoo or body scrub?
Experiment with leaving out or changing steps. We've told you that you need each step, but is this true? Find out for yourself. Try leaving out a step or changing how much of each ingredient you use.
Do only living organisms contain DNA? Try extracting DNA from things that you think might not have DNA.
Now that you have decided what you will do, carry out this experiment and submit the results via your experimental plan.
Explanation / Answer
Pleaes find the answers below:
Answer 1: Different sources of cells contain different amount of DNA. In this regard, one of the most easiest source of DNA for extraction in laboratory is human cheek-lining cells. Another good source is green-leafy vegetables such as cauliflowers, spinach etc. These vegetables contain large amount of DNA/cell hence serve as good host for experimentation.
Answer 2: Powedered soaps contain large amount of long-chain fatty acids and have high pH values when dissolved in water. Thus, they do not serve as good source for DNA extraction. Saponification using liquid soaps can be considered for DNA extraction but they must be devoid of strong organic solvents. This holds true for shampoos etc as well.
Answer 3: During DNA extraction, the step of digesting the cellular preparation with proteinase K can be eliminated. This is because plant cells do not require proteinase K treatment unlike human cells such as skeletal and cardiac muscles which are difficult to rupture.
Answer 4:True. DNA represents to be the self-replicating genetic code for a cell and hence is found only in living cells. The dead-cells also contain DNA but it undergoes disintegration and clumping. Thus, while extracting DNA from sources which are not alive, a false positive result might be obtained.
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