How To: Extract DNA From A Strawberry (Yes, Fruit Has DNA)

Haven’t you always wanted to know how to extract DNA from the strawberries in your kitchen? This is the kind of thing that makes science so much fun! Before I show you how to yank a big ‘ol sack of DNA right out from a strawberry, let me ask, did you know that fruit has DNA? I didn’t. It turns out that all living things have DNA in them. This includes trees, seeds and the fruit itself. It’s all just gushing with lovely DNA. According to Science Buddies, the top five fruits with the most DNA are plums, bananas, strawberries, oranges and honeydew melons (in that order). You can click over there to see the vegetable rankings too.

If you’ve ever wanted to see DNA up close and personal, now is your chance. In this short video, you will see exactly how you can walk into your kitchen right now and extract DNA from a strawberry. When it comes out, you’ll see it’s a big white blob. From what I’ve learned about this, DNA itself is obviously very small. However, when all the millions and billions of strands get all mashed up together like that, it forms a white blob. Why is the blob all white? Well, it has something to do with how it absorbs light in the UV region in a part of the spectrum that the human eye can’t see, so it appears to be white or colorless rather.

If DNA is in every living thing, think about how much of it we eat if it’s in all fruits, vegetables, seeds, meat, etc. When you extract DNA from one small strawberry for example, you might be surprised how much of it comes out of there. If you want to see a strawberry used in another interesting experiment, check out The Entire Internet Weighs As Much As A Strawberry. Alright kids, it’s time to get out your science goggles and your beakers so you can git to having fun with science!