Historically, DNA extraction was accomplished by mechanical or chemical disruption of cells to release their organelles and contents. This works well in samples containing many cells, but has required adaptation for use with the much smaller biological samples collected at crime scenes.

Organic extraction is a conventional method that uses organic chemicals to isolate genomic DNA. The procedure can be described in four steps:

1. solubilization of the stain components
2. denaturation and hydrolysis of proteins
3. removal of denatured proteins
4. purification of DNA⁰⁶

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