Extraction of Kiwi DNA - science

Extraction of Kiwi DNA

Kiwi
A kiwi is a fruit. Most people like kiwis, they are healthy and they contain lots of vitamins and fibers. Especially the skin – but people do not eat that, A. its brown. B. It is hairy.
The skin is really bitter, and I think this is the main reason why people do not eat it, but you can get these yellow kiwis and when I get them I eat the skin as well, because it is not as brown and not as hairy. When you eat kiwis you can eat it all, or you can cut it in half and eat the flesh with a spoon. This is why I decided to use this picture, because it illustrates 2 faces of a kiwi and also because I think the colors are pretty inside of it. I like green.

I said before that kiwi is a fruit, and it is – but it is also a plant (or at least not an animal). You know that, because of its cells and by the fact that it is not an animal. You also know it is not an animal because vegans eat them. But a plant cell is different from an animal (this include humans) cell, and its way more advanced.
It contains a cell wall (Dark green line) which surrounds the cell and keeps it in shape. The cell membrane (Lighter green inner line) is like a liquid plastic bag. I do know that it sounded a bit stupid, because plastic bags are not liquid, but in this case, it is. It surrounds the chloroplast (Dark green dots), vacuole (purple box), Nucleus and cytoplasm, including a bunch of stuff that we have not been taught yet like Raphide Crystals, Golgi apparatus and mitochondrion. None of these words are words that my computer is able to spell, so I do apologize if they somehow are wrong. In the Nucleus (The big blue circle) contains DNA, which gives instructions to the rest of the cell. To be able to see these DNAs you have to follow these easy steps, you are able to do this at home, because lots of the equipment is really common and easy to get. Apart from the microscope of course, but you only need that if you want to get a closer view.

All you need is:
 
A kiwifruit. If you are an allergic, to bad – no, you can use an onion instead, but that is not a fruit, and it smells bad.
5g washing up liquid OR hand soap. I would prefer hand soap, because in the moment I touch the washing up liquid my mum will think I will do the dishes – and I do not like giving her false hopes.
5g of Sodium Chloride, to be honest with you, this just means salt.
100ml H2O – this is water, it contains two hydrogen ( 1/1 H) atoms and oxygen (16/8 O) atom. 
100ml of ice cold alcohol. Try white rum or ethylated spirits, these are the best. Before use keep it in a freezer for half an hour (30 minutes).
A kettle, you will need this to boil water for a basin.
3 jars or beakers, you will use them to contain the mixtures
1 huge basin, for the boiled water from the kettle.
Spoon you may as well use different types of equipment, you just need something to monster mash kiwi, I use spoons because I like spoons.
Filter paper – that can be coffee or tea filter, just to separate the liquid from the kiwi bits.
A knife, or a scalpel, depending on your mood and how chirurgic you want to look.
 
Step 1
the kiwi’s skin does not contain much DNA, and it is all hairy and nasty, so peel that off and cut the green oval shaped, naked fruit into smaller chunks.

Step 2
put these green chunks into a jar (or beaker) and grab your spoon (or whatever you prefer). Mash the poor little fruit so you break up some of the cells. You break the cell wall doing this – the big dark green line, remember?

Step 3
grab another jar (or beaker) and start mix salt, tap water and washing up liquid (or hand soap). This cute little mixture is called Extraction Buffer – I must admit that I do not know why. To dissolve the salt you have to stir, but do it slowly – otherwise a bunch of bubbles will pop up and we do not like bubbles in this experiment.

Step 4
now add the Extraction Buffer with the mashed kiwi, and continue mashing, because if you mash it really good you get more DNA – which is the point of this experiment.

Step 5Incubate the kiwi and buffer mixture at 60 degrees Centigrade for 15 minutes. To make your own incubator, take a large basin and half fill it with boiling water from a kettle. To reduce the temperature, add about the same amount again of normal tap water. Using a thermometer will help you reach a more precise temperature. Carefully put the jar with the kiwi into the incubator and leave to stand for 15 minutes. Incubation helps to break up the cells further and starts to degrade some of the cell's proteins.

 Step 6
remove the jar from the incubator and filter the kiwi mixture through a coffee filter paper into another jar. This removes all the lumps and bits of kiwi fruit, we do not need that. When you have done this, you should end up with a green liquid, this is caused by the simple fact that the kiwifruit.

Step 7
now; pour the ice cold alcohol into the jar down the side. The alcohol will form a layer on top of the liquid, then you will start see a white jelly-like substance in the liquid, and this is the DNA. You can use a little hook to hook it up.

What is all this?
The cells are made of this really strong Cell Wall, and beneath them the cell got a fatty Cell Membrane. Inside of that, there is a nucleus containing the DNA. To get the DNA you have to break down these layers, and heating up the mixture breaks down the Cell Wall exposing the Cell Membrane.
The washing up liquid destroys the fatty Cell Membrane. The kiwifruit contains protease enzymes and this breaks up the proteins, this is also why it can hurt a bit in your mouth eating kiwifruit, because it breaks down the proteins in it.
Then the salt makes the DNA stick together and since the DNA does not dissolve in the alcohol, it turns out to these small jelly-like substances because it clumps up. The reason why you can see this so clearly is because the DNA comes from over a billion of kiwifruit cells, which is quite a lot.