Polymerase Chain Reaction Flashcards
1
Q
What is the polymerase chain reaction?
A
The artificial amplification of sections of DNA using complementary primers
2
Q
What are uses of PCR?
A
Human genome project
DNA fingerprinting
Detection of bacteria/viruses
Diagnosis of genetic disorders
3
Q
Describe the polymerase chain reaction
A
DNA heated to high temperatures to break weak hydrogen bonds between bases and unwind DNA molecules
Cooled so primers can attach to target sequences of DNA
Heat tolerant DNA taq polymerase adds nucleotides to the primers through complementary base pairing
This replicates the DNA and repeats, doubling how much DNA there is each time
