Science Buddies: "Ask an Expert"

We had to extract DNA from a Pea which was successful and completed however, had a few questions were I am stuck on

What variables must be controlled for my experiment to work if I chose a strawberry
what might the yield be if I did not add detergent
what might my yield be if I did not add meat tenderizer
what might I expect yield to be if I used pineapple juice instead of meat tenderizer?


Think my brain is on overload any help or guidence would be appreciated

fastpitchchick wrote:What variables must be controlled for my experiment to work if I chose a strawberry

Without knowing your hypothesis, I can't help you on this one. To be able to draw a conclusion for any hypothesis, you have to control everything except for the one thing you are intentionally changing. I'm wondering if your Pea DNA extraction was a demonstration or a controlled science experiment. Look up the scientific method on Science Buddies to help you understand what it takes to do a controlled science experiment.

fastpitchchick wrote:what might the yield be if I did not add detergent

The detergent is one lysing agent (breaks down cell walls) so that DNA is released from the cells into the solution.

fastpitchchick wrote:what might my yield be if I did not add meat tenderizer

Meat tenerizer is another lysing agent.

fastpitchchick wrote:what might I expect yield to be if I used pineapple juice instead of meat tenderizer

pineapple juice is yet another lysing agent.
The only way to actually find out the answers to your last 3 questions is to run a controlled experiment.