The DNA Extraction Comedy: A Molecular Family's Journey

This is a skit that I penned, and our group enacted in the college, as a part of assignment. The skit is shedding light on the various issues faced by the DNA during each step of DNA extraction process. I have personified the different constituent molecules of DNA, like Sugars, Phosphate, and Nucleotides and have depicted them as members of a family. There is a movement lead by Fredrich Meisher, in which they are kicking out the families (DNA) out of their homes(nucleus), to perform all sorts of scientific experiments on them. Enjoy reading.

Narrator: It all started in 1896, when Fredrich Meisher isolated the DNA from WBC from pus-soaked bandage at a local hospital in Tubingen, Germany. Here, we will take you on a journey inside a cell’s nucleus to witness the conversation between nucleotides, sugar and phosphate molecules while DNA extraction process is ongoing.

Here, the molecules are playing the role as a family, where phosphate is Phosphi mummy, sugar is Suga chacha, nucleotide is Nucleo papa and another nucleotide, the daughter of Nucleo papa is Nucleii. The family is the DNA of an extremophilic bacteria, Thermococcus gammatolerans.

(SETUP: All are sitting on the stage. Phosphi mummy is cutting vegetables, Nucleo papa is reading newspaper, sugar chacha is reading a book.)

PHOSPHI MUMMY: Nucleii ke papa, do you know our padosi, that Thermus aquaticus bhaiya?

NUCLEO PAPA: yes, yes, what about him? Such a nice man.

PHOSPHI MUMMY: Arrey, his family was kicked out of their home too. The movement has really taken a good pace.

(everyone gasps)

SUGAR CHACHA: they’ve reached our neighbourhood now? Are you kidding?

NUCLEO PAPA: No, No, she’s right. See, here in the newspaper also, I wonder what good Fredrich Meisher did, by kicking out happy families like us out of our homes.

PHOSPHI MUMMY: yes, yes, paisa hai, khana hai, pani hai, sir pe chatt hai. see how good of a home we have in this nucleus.

SUGAR CHACHA: Arreyyy, always thinking like this. You should say, there’re so many gates, we can always send RNA through it, to the cytoplasmic society. There is enough machinery here to repair and replicate us.

NUCLEII: And we are also protected. I am the future of the cell, right?

NUCLEO PAPA: (Proudly) Yes, yes beta. Suga chacha, do you know, she has all the sequences correct from birth. The DNA repair machinery, during her birth were in shock that how can a daughter have no wrong sequences.

PHOSPHI MUMMY: Hey, don’t divert from the topic. Do you know what all happened to Thermus aquaticus’s family? Firstly, those scientists attacked the cell membrane. And since they were attached to the membrane. Some of them were cleaved there only.

(ALL GASP. AND TOGETHER: THEY GOT CLEVAED? AND SUGA CHACHA GESTURES A KNIFE ON THE NECK)

NUCLEO PAPA: Yes, yes. It is here in the newspaper too. Not all Thermus’s brothers were taken. Some of their membrane couldn’t be cleaved as they were so strong because of their bacterial nature. So, their DNA family wasn’t kicked out of their home.

SUGAR CHACHA: So, what happened after the lysis of their membrane? It must be over for them then only, right?

PHOSPHI MUMMY: Then they treated them with RNAse.

NUCELO PAPA: And guess what? Though it didn’t affect the DNA family, but it surely has the potential to also affect it and cause fragmentation and make it lose their integrity.

SUGAR CHACHA: So, one thing is clear. They don’t want the RNA. But the main players. Us. The DNA. And laughs. But I still can’t understand why.

NUCLEO PAPA: And sometimes the RNAse treatment was so harsh that it also affected our structure.

PHOSPHI MUMMY: and once they removed RNA. They went after the proteins. They wanted to remove everything around us.

NUCLEII: So, if we are attacked. Then my friend Proty, the protein will be removed? I have tried so hard to make her my friend that finally we have pretty zinc fingers.

NUCLEO PAPA: no, no, beta. Nothing will remove us from our nucleus.

SUGAR CHACHA: so, Phosphi, what happened when they went for the proteins?

PHOSPHI MUMMY: they, actually tried to remove all the proteins using harsh chemicals like phenol and chloroform. But when they were not done properly it was harmful also for the DNA family.

NUCLEO PAPA: yes, they’ve written here in the report, that sometimes, the proteins weren’t removed totally, and they were co-purified with the DNA, the other time the DNA was sheared as they were shaking the cell too hard in those chemicals.

SUGAR CHACHA: and if these organic solvents would not be removed nicely, then the remnants can also give us a hard time. If their pH isn’t set right then we won’t be able to separate from the proteins. Like Nucleii and her Proty friend’s zinc fingers.

PHOSPHI MUMMY: these chemicals didn’t just harm the proteins but sometimes also the scientist who didn’t took proper care while handling such chemicals.

NUCLEO PAPA: so, listen, after the phenol chloroform, they finally gave DNA family some peace. They added buffers with the pH of our choice and gave further washes. So, we were finally pure and alone, but still kicked out completely of their homes. The DNA had no friend around, no RNA, no protein, no one. I wonder how lonely it would be.

PHOSPHI MUMMY: yes, yes, Thermus’s family was in pain. And then they put the DNA in ethanol. In between they were spinned in very fast merry go rounds too? Such a sadistic scientist.

NUCLEII: Mummy, it is called a centrifuge. Not a merry go round.

SUGAR CHACHA: so, then the DNA family must have come together and started praying for their fate once they were in the ethanol. As ethanol will disrupt the hydration shell around our DNA family, and cause them to precipitate.

PHOSPHI MUMMY: yes, yes, they indeed came together to pray. First, they had to withstand so many harsh conditions. And when the process wasn’t done nicely. Sometimes the DNA’s yield was also very low, sometimes the ethanol contaminated DNA, so that some further processes couldn’t happen nicely.

NUCLEO PAPA: and once they kicked out the DNA from their homes, the nucleus, they stored some of it with the rest of it, they did variety of experiments like PCR, where they made billions of copies of the gene.

NUCLEII: DNA sequencing, where they identified every single nucleotide in the DNA.

PHOSPHI MUMMY: Restriction digestion and recombinant DNA technology, where DNA was cut at specific places and some other DNA was inserted to give an added benefit like antibiotic resistance, stress resistance in crops, and what not.

SUGAR CHACHA: Site directed mutagenesis, by inducing mutations at specific positions in the DNA, and study the function of the gene, upon its inactivation, and many other applications like elucidating other metabolic pathways.

NUCLEO PAPA: So, this skit was a funny way to show the issues DNA face during each step of DNA isolation process in a funny way, like kicking DNA family out of their home, the nucleus. But thanks to all the people who have contributed to the field of science by such discoveries, that has helped us to evolve and understand the mysteries of the nature.

  

(FROM LEFT TO RIGHT: Tanish, played the role of Suga Chacha, I played the role of Nucleo Papa, and Narrator. Next to me is Vaidehi, who played the role of Phosphi Mummy and Shina, who played the role of Nucleii)