Online Dna Extraction Lab

Online DNA Extraction (10pts)

Answer the following questions during the online simulation, then staple in your lab manual:

1. Where do you get the cells from for the DNA extraction? --In the person’s mouth (a cheek swab). The skin in the inside of the mouth loses thousands of cells every day. We can use those cells for the extraction.

2. What type of solution do you add to the tube using the micropipette?—Lysis solution

3. What chemical in the solution disrupts the cell membrane?—Detergent and a proteinase K enzyme. The detergent disrupts the cell membrane and nuclear envelope and DNA is released. DNA is wrapped around the histones (proteins), so the proteinase K enzyme breaks that wrapping and frees the DNA.

4. What enzyme in the solution breaks apart the histones?—the proteinase K enzyme.

5. Why do we add a salt solution to the DNA?—The salt causes proteins and other cellular debris to clump together.

6. Why is it important to place a tube opposite your test tube in the centrifuge?—to balance the centrifuge.

7. After the centrifuge, where in the tube do you find the cell debris?—on the bottom of the tube. The DNA?—the DNA is still distributed through the liquid.

8. Why does DNA become visible when mixing it with isopropanol?—DNA is not soluble in isopropanol, so it comes out of the solution and we can see it clumped together with the naked eye.

Base Pairings

Match the following nucleic acids with their base pairs:

5’--- AAG GCT TTC CAG TAG GGT GCA --3’

3’--- TTC CGA AAG GTC ATC CCA CGT --5’ Template strand

Transcription occurs

5’-- AAG GCU UUC CAG UAG GGU GCA --3’ transcript RNA

Translation occurs

Now list the amino acids that are linked together based on their triplet code. Reference the link titled “Amino Acid Triplet Code”.

Lysine Alanine Phenylalanine Glutamine...