You can extract DNA from your food at home! We made instructional handouts in English and Spanish.
These photos are from an outreach event where we helped people extract DNA from Bananas using common household products:
Saturday February 27, 2016
Night of the Open Door
Banana DNA Extractions and Phylogenetics
Although they had us in a lab, you can find all of the materials at the grocery store and do this in your own home or classroom:
Materials
- Ripe banana
- Half cup of water
- Teaspoon of salt
- Resealable zip-top bag
- Dishwashing soap or detergent
- Rubbing alcohol
- Coffee filter
- Narrow glass
- Narrow wooden stirrer
Busy extracting DNA!
The whole process takes about 20minutes from start to finish, but what a finish:
Strands of DNA from bananas
And what a great group of people helping to raise awareness about how awesome DNA is and what it can be used for!
Wilson Sayres lab, DNA extraction team