How is extracting DNA from blood different from extracting DNA from a fruit?

Question

I would like to know this, because we performed an experiment with strawberries, soapy water, ethanol, cheesecloth and sorts...

Answer 1

In theory, it's not really different. To extract DNA from anything you need to follow the same basic principles:

1. Disrupt the cells (a blender for fruit, followed by soap to break up membranes)

2. Remove the cellular debris (cheesecloth)

3. precipitate the DNA (you need salt and alcohol of some form)

In reality, getting DNA from some cells is a lot more difficult than getting it from strawberries, as a previous poster mentioned.

Answer 2

DNA in blood only exists in white blood cells. Therefore, the white blood cells must be filtered out through centrifugation and the DAN extracted from there. Fruit is completely different, but I can't explain the whole process.

Answer 3

There isn't much DNA in blood, just in the white cells which only make up a small fraction.