Abstract
Amplification factors achieved during routine applications of PCR are in the range of 106–108. Given these high amplification factors it is important to know the rate of error production during the amplification process. The frequency of base substitutions of the Taq DNA polymerase during a single round of replication has been determined to be in the order of 1 × 10-4 [4]. The rather high error rate as compared to other DNA polymerases is due to the lack of an exonuclease proofreading activity of this enzyme. In the present study we have determined the production and propagation of errors during PCR as a function of the number of amplification cycles.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Fersht, A.R., Shi, J.P., and Tsui, W.C. (1983) J.Mol.Biol. 165, 37–51
Grosse, F., Krauss, G., Knill-Jones, J.W., and Fersht, A.R. (1983), EMBO J. 2, 9, 1515–1519
Keohavong Phouthone and Thilly, William G. (1989), Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, 86, 9253–9257
Tindall Kenneth R., and Kunkel Thomas A. (1988), Biochemistry, 27, 6008–6013
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 1991 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Wagner, A., Reckmann, B., Hagen-Mann, K., Krauss, G. (1991). Error Production and Error Propagation During PCR. In: Rolfs, A., Schumacher, H.C., Marx, P. (eds) PCR Topics. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-75924-6_14
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-75924-6_14
Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
Print ISBN: 978-3-540-52934-7
Online ISBN: 978-3-642-75924-6
eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive