SoundBio Lab decided to wrap up 2019 with one final workshop on December 28th. A group of 10 budding scientists were led by our Director of Educational Outreach. The goal was not only to learn more about genomes, their relative sizes, and why fruits are useful for this type of experiment, but also to see if we could figure out which fruit yields the most DNA.

We started out with strawberries (of course!), but quickly moved on to blueberries and then bananas. Participants were able to complete the DNA extraction protocol several times to practice their technique and to test what fruit worked best. While we were all fairly surprised at the DNA yield from bananas, it looks like strawberries still came out on top!

Participants hard at work measuring, smashing and extracting DNA from fruit!

The reason strawberries have so much DNA is because commercially available strawberries are octoploidy - meaning they have 8 copies of the genome in each cell. This turns out to be a LOT of DNA, which makes it easier to extract and visualize without needing a microscope. It’s also worth mentioning that they are really fun to smash with a mortar and pestle too! All in all, this 1 hour introduction to DNA workshop was a hit. We even sneaked a peak of fruit cells and some DNA under our compound microscope. Our participants learned a few fun trivia facts too, such as the answer to this question: What is the one cell type in your body that DOES NOT have DNA in it? Here’s a hint, it is sometimes referred to as ‘Red Gold’.

Have ideas for more workshops or want to attend this type of activity? Email us at worskhops (at) sound.bio