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YOU WILL NEED:
- A strawberry
- Some powdered meat tenderizer (papain)
- Some liquid soap
- A fork
- Two small cups (shot glasses are great)
- A coffee filter
- Some rubbing alcohol
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This extracts DNA from a strawberry. You can use just about any soft fruit, but strawberries are best; they're octoploid (each cell has 8 sets of chromosomes), so there's a shitload of DNA in them. Basically, you just squish up the strawberry in a little bit of water and add a touch* each of soap and meat tenderizer. The soap disrupts the membranes and the protein secondary & tertiary structure in the tissue, allowing access to the DNA. The meat tenderizer contains proteases (papain, typically) that chew up the proteins that bind to the DNA, helping it get out into the solution. It also chews up the DNAses in the prep. The coffee filter gets rid of the trash, cleaning up the solution. The isopropyl alcohol (rubbing alcohol) then precipitates the DNA out of solution. Here's the rundown:
clipped from: www.kuro5hin.org