WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO. Mrs. Kagel’s seventh grade science classes extracted DNA from a strawberry. After mashing a strawberry in a zip-lock bag, they added dish soap and salt to release the DNA, and then let it sit. They then strained the mixture through a coffee filter and added cold isopropyl alcohol. The white strands of DNA were then visible.

Strawberries are good for DNA extraction since they are octoploids, meaning they have eight copies of each chromosome. This makes their DNA easier to isolate and to precipitate in the alcohol. It was a fun and exciting way to better understand genetics.