Technology

A. The DNA being the most important part of the cell is understandably found within the deepest recesses of the cell. DNA strands are found inside the nucleus  a membrane enclosed organelle inside the cell itself. The situation can be imagined as a separate closed vault (the nucleus) within the bank (the cell). To reach the DNA would involve getting through the cell membrane, across the cytoplasm and inside the nucleus. Viewing the task as a heist, the intruders would need to breach through two layers of security  the cell membrane and the nucleus. There is however one secret weapon that will eliminate both security walls  detergent (DNA Blueprint for Life).

To understand, we first look at the cell membrane. The cell membrane and the wall of the nucleus are both made up of phospholipid bilayers. The phospholipid bilayer is responsible for keeping the liquid insides of the cell separate and distinct from its liquid environment. It does this by sandwiching two phospholipids  molecules with a water attractive headand a water repellant tail. In the bilayer, the water attractive heads face outward on either side of the bilayer making the inside of the bilayer solely composed of the water repellant tails. This gives the bilayer its two key characteristics having an outward facing end which can interact with water and having an inside which repels water.

Together, these two properties enable the phospholipid bilayer to effectively keep the cell insides distinct from its liquid environment. Surfactants such as soap and detergent dissolve these phospholipid bilayers. Soap is also a phospholipid and its attractive head will interact with the outside face of the membranes bilayer. As such, the effectiveness of the cell membrane is destroyed and the cells insides will unravel. The same will also occur to the nucleus wall which is also  composed of the same phospholipid bilayer. Therefore, with the simple addition of soap, the DNA is already exposed open to the world for the taking.

B. The same method in A will not work for plant cells. This is because plant cells have a much tougher outer layer of security  the cell wall. Unlike the cell membrane, the cell wall is mostly composed of cellulose and other carbohydrates. Unlike the cell membrane, the cell wall is physically tough and is responsible for giving plants their rigidity. It is the molecule responsible for making trees hard. Very few chemicals in the world can break down cellulose making it a very tough wall to penetrate. Our thief may use such a chemical to break into the plant cell by dissolving the cellulose. Such a chemical can be the enzyme from the gut of termites  a creature which can readily eat and digest cellulose rich wood. After breaking through the cell wall, our thief may again use soap and other surfactants to dissolve the cell membrane which encloses the nucleus of the plant cell, releasing the plant DNA.