Tuesday, March 8, 2011

Biochemistry Club of Virginia Tech is exhibiting in March!

DNA is the genetic material that gives living organisms their characteristics. The Biochemistry Club of Virginia Tech invites all KTU participants to engage in a hands-on DNA extraction from strawberry. We use strawberries as a source for extracting DNA because they are soft and easy to pulverize, and they produce enzymes which aid in breaking down the plant cell walls. Strawberries have enormous genomes. They are octoploid, which means they have eight of each type of chromosome (which equals abundant DNA). At the end of this experiment participants can take their strawberry DNA home.

No comments: