PCR

CAN YOU COPY-PASTE THE DNA???

 

 

Polymerase chain reaction ( PCR) is a methods that can make numerous copies of a specific segment of DNA quickly and accurately. This technique help investigators to obtain the large quantities of DNA until 10⁶ – 10⁷ times from normal quantities that are required for various experiments and procedures in molecular biology, forensic analysis, evolutionary biology, and medical diagnostics.

PCR was developed in 1983 by Kary B. Mullis, an American biochemist with 3 basic step which is denaturation , annealing and DNA  Polymerase extension. Do not forget about the important aid on PCR process is Taq Polymerase , and enzyme originally isolated from the thermophilic bacterium Thermus aquaticus which functions as thermostable .

Denaturation is separation of two strands of DNA by heating the material to temperatures of 95 °C (203 °F) and new strand is built. In original , DNA polymerase had to be replenished after every cycle because it is not stable at high temperatures, so with Taq Polymerase’s help , it can be printed continuously.

Annealing is reduced temperatures to 55 °C (131 °F) so that the characteristic of DNA can be restored.

DNA Polymerase Extension is the last step that raised the temperature to about 72 °C (162 °F), and the DNA polymerase begins adding nucleotides onto the ends of the annealed primers. At the end of the cycle, which lasts about five minutes, the temperature is raised and the process begins again. 

About writer :

Name                    : Lamria Agnes Meilani

Organization         : AMSA- UKI

University             : Universitas Kristen  Indonesia