Brief Summary
In this video, Dr. Melissa Wilson Sayres from Arizona State University demonstrates how to extract DNA from bananas using common grocery store items. The process is engaging and educational, making it accessible for viewers to try this experiment at home or in a classroom setting.
- The video explains the materials needed for the DNA extraction process.
- It outlines each step of the procedure, from mashing the bananas to adding the isopropyl alcohol, and highlights the visual results of the DNA extraction.
Dr. Melissa Wilson Sayres introduces herself and her research focus on DNA differences across various living organisms. She shares that the video will guide viewers through an experiment to extract DNA from bananas using easily obtainable ingredients.
The necessary materials are discussed, including a zip-top bag, bananas, warm salty water, dish soap, a coffee filter, a funnel, and isopropyl alcohol. Dr. Sayres emphasizes the importance of preparation and cleanliness as the experiment involves mashing bananas.
The first step involves mashing the bananas thoroughly in the zip-top bag. After mashing, the mixture is combined with the warm salty water, and the solution is gently mixed with dish soap to avoid excessive foaming. The banana and water mixture is then filtered through a coffee filter.
Once the banana mixture has been filtered, isopropyl alcohol is carefully added to the filtered liquid. Dr. Sayres points out that keeping the layers separate enables the DNA to precipitate out into the alcohol. The separation improves with patience, as viewers wait to see the DNA strands form.
Towards the end of the experiment, viewers can observe the extracted DNA, usually appearing as white strands or clumps in the alcohol layer. Dr. Sayres encourages viewers to try this experiment themselves and mentions that additional instructional materials are available in the video description.
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Transcript
Full transcript of “Banana DNA Experiment”. Click a timestamp to open the video at that moment. Need another video? Use the YouTube transcript generator.
0:03 Hi, I'm doctor Melissa Wilson Sayres. I'm an assistant professor here in the School of Life Sciences and the Center for Evolution and Medicine in the Biodesign Institute at Arizona State University. My area of research is in studying differences in DNA across people, across animals, every living thing has DNA in it and what you might not know is that you can look at it. So today what we are going to do is run through and experiment where you can extract DNA from living things with items you can purchase in a grocery store. So today we are going to extract DNA from bananas. So should we get started? Any sort of bag with a zippy top will work just because you’re going to be mashing bananas in here and you don't want it to get all over everything. One of our bananas. Our container for our warm salty water that we will be using.
0:56 Let's first start just start by mashing some bananas. But this is the fun part, just get in there. Mash it, just mash it up. Probably about a minute. So after that we're going to fill out cup with hot water and salt. And once you have the salt dissolved in the water then we're going to mix that in with our banana mixture. And now we get to gently slosh it around. Okay and here's the next step where you gotta to be careful not to get it too foamy. We're going to add a half a tea spoon of our dish soap. And now we want to gently
1:42 - because now it's got the soap in it will really get bubbly if we get to aggressive with it. And now we are going to set this aside and we are going to get our coffee filter setup with our funnel. And here you want to be careful if you're a little too excited dumping it in there you'll get sloshy banana stuff coming out, because it will take awhile. Ah, can you hear that? And now we wait. So now that we have patiently waited for all our banana mush mixture to go through our filter, we have the last and most exciting step, which is adding our isopropyl alcohol. We want to really try to keep the alcohol separate from this mixture, because the DNA is going precipitate, or come out into the
2:32 alcohol mixture. And we'll try to add two and half to five centimeters or one to two inches to it. And now we wait. The longer you let it sit the more separated you'll be able to see the two different parts of it. And sometimes we'll find that you will see lots and lots of DNA there. Sometimes you will only see a couple small strands and that's part of science. But those little bubbles are sticking along strands of the banana DNA. Oh, look at that. Oh this, this actually - all of this is right here is the DNA. It's just kind of sticking there. Right - and so we will show you some other pictures of experiments
3:19 that we've done extracting DNA out from bananas and potentially a couple other fruits where you can see some of the different outcomes that you can expect. Thank you for watching. We do have the descriptions for how to do this at home, or in the classroom we have handouts that you can use. So if you are interested in taking DNA out of the cells of the food you eat you can play along at home. Thank you.
