Ingredients



ice cold Bacardi 151

frozen sliced strawberries

frozen pineapple juice concentrate



Supplies



Ziplock bags

Strainer

Bowls

Scale or measuring cups

Narrow glasses for serving



This ingredient list differs significantly from the materials for a standard home DNA extraction. Key changes:



-Normally, surfactants such as dish soap are used to lyse cells. These are not very tasty. Instead, we start with frozen strawberries, in which most cells have already been lysed by the freeze/thaw process. We found that no surfactant was necessary when starting with frozen fruit. Strawberries also gave us the most DNA by far, probably because commercial strawberry strains tend to be octoploid, i.e. they have 8 copies of DNA per cell. (See also How To Extract DNA From A Strawberry.)



-Salt is usually added to enhance precipitation of the DNA. We found salt unnecessary and were able to obtain reasonable yields while omitting it.



-Meat tenderizer is often added to help break down proteins and free the DNA; this mimics the effect of proteases that would be used in a lab setting. Instead, we used pineapple juice, which contains the protease bromelain. (Note that canned pineapple should not be used, since the heat used during the canning process deactivates bromelain.)



-High-proof alcohol (greater than 80 proof) is required for DNA precipitation. Since a daiquiri would traditionally be made with rum, we selected Bacardi 151. (Cheapskates can use Everclear - both are 151 proof, or 75%.)