Question

1. What are the possible reasons you would need to isolate human DNA?

2. How long is the DNA in each cell’s nucleus? _______
3. Identify the steps necessary to isolate DNA from cheek cells:

Answer 1

1. The ability to extract DNA is of primary importance to studying the genetic causes of disease and for the development of diagnostics and drugs. It is also essential for carrying out forensic science, sequencing genomes, detecting bacteria and viruses in the environment and for determining paternity.

2.This allows the 3 billion base pairs in each cell to fit into a space just 6 microns across. If you stretched the DNA in one cell all the way out, it would be about 2m long and all the DNA in all your cells put together would be about twice the diameter of the Solar System.

3 .The three basic steps of DNA extraction are 1) lysis, 2) precipitation, and 3) purification. In this step, the cell and the nucleus are broken open to release the DNA inside and there are two ways to do this. First, mechanical disruption breaks open the cells.