DNA Extraction from Wheat Germ

1. Place 1 gram of raw wheat germ in a test tube.
2. Add 20ml of hot tap water and mix constantly for 3 minutes
      Observation: The "wheat germ soup" looked like watery, old bread. It turned the water a cloudy color.
3. Add 1 ml of detergent and mix gently every minute for 5 minutes without creating foam.
     Observation: After adding detergent to the mix, the wheat germ soup turned yellow. It looked a lot like chunky old Mountain Dew. At this point the cell membrane is dissolving so that we can later extract the DNA.
4. Remove foam.
5. Slowly pour 14ml of alcohol down the side of the test tube so that it forms a layer on top of the solution. Don't mix the two.
     Observation: The alcohol made the solution form four layers. The layers are: wheat germ, detergent, a while layer, and the clear alcohol. At this step, the DNA is precipitating at the water-alcohol interface, pulling the DNA out of the wheat germ. At the water-alcohol interface, DNA is forming a white layer(DNA).
6. Let the tube sit for a few minutes as the DNA rises. Remove the DNA with a wooden stick.
     Observation: The DNA looks a lot like a small wet piece of paper, or in Chapin's words, "a booger."

Self Analysis: Chapin and I had a lot of fun with this lab because we got fast results and the results we got were very interesting. I never knew you could extract DNA with simple household items. I never even knew that wheat germ had DNA!