Ask an Expert: Fruit and Vegetable DNA (2024)

Hi!

I'm not an expert, but I've been in a similar situation and empathize.

First, check out the Science Buddies link on choosing a question for a science fair project: https://www.sciencebuddies.org/science- ... tion.shtml

Since you already have chosen a topic, skip down to the Your Science Fair Project Question section.

Some points you should consider while choosing a question can include:
- variables (https://www.sciencebuddies.org/science- ... bles.shtml)
- availability of materials
- information in books/journals/online based on the subject

Good luck!

Hi!

Don't get discouraged!

Note that the question whether fruits or vegetables have more DNA is NOT a bad question at all! I actually find it EXTREMELY interesting! To have a better quality of experiment/understand and to impress judging, it will be amazing if you could say WHY _____ has more DNA than _____. This will need to you to do some background research.

Get familiar with the terms: lipids, cell membrane, protein, DNA, precipitate, fruit and vegetable cells. Have you read up on your subject yet?

Good luck!

Hi,

Irregular has already given you some good advice! Your question is fine, but he is right that you want to do some more background research and determine -why- fruits might have more DNA than vegetables or vice-versa. Keep in mind that, by definition, fruits are reproductive bodies, whereas vegetables are not. You might therefore look up more information about plant reproduction.

One variation on a project like this--which is an active area of inquiry in science--is to think about how different varieties of the same species could have different DNA. For example, did you know that broccoli, cauliflower, turnips, kholrabi, brussels sprouts, and cabbage all come from different varieties of the same species? It might be interesting to see whether you see any differences in amounts of DNA between these plants which have been artificially selected by humans for different traits.

That sounds great, and yesturday I thought up about a question and came up with "does the different type of fruit or vegetable effect the amount of DNA it produces?" It is sort of like you were saying. But about the amount of DNA, my mom says that in people no one has more DNA than another person. So, I was wondering if it would be the same with plants.

Thanks for your help, and I'm gonna go some more research to see what I can find out. If you think of anything better please let me know.

Your mother is actually not right. For example, she has more DNA than you do, because she's female--and has two X chromosomes, whereas you have an X and a Y. Since the Y chromosome is smaller, women have more DNA than men. Also, people with Downs' Syndrome and other similar genetic disorders often have more or less DNA than the average person.

But, on average, ignoring the difference between men and women, yes, humans have about the same amount of DNA. That's because we're all the same species! However, plants can have vastly different amounts of DNA depending on what sort of plant it is. Many plants speciate when they end up with 4 or 8 copies of various chromosomes instead of 2. So, you should be able to see differences as long as you test many different kinds of fruit and vegetables.

Good luck!

The experiment you are doing falls into a category that scientists call 'basic research'. What this means is that this is research that isn't designed for a specific purpose--like helping humans. However, basic research can yield important insights that can lead to applied research. So, for example, you might find that by finding the amount of DNA you can tell species apart--which might turn into an important way of identifying plant material with further research. But, you won't know until you do the experiment!

Good luck!

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No, I don't think that fruits contain more DNA because they have Vitamin C in them. I suspect that citrus fruits are simply polyploid: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polyploidy and that most citrus fruits are related .