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Molecular Life Sciences pp 1–3Cite as

Polymerase Chain Reaction

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Definition

The polymerase chain reaction is a procedure by which DNA is copied cyclically in vitro, leading to amplification of a specific DNA sequence. The method can be used to increase the amount of a DNA segment that is present in small amount in an initial sample or to selectively amplify one sequence from among a large amount of other DNA sequences. A PCR reaction mixture contains a double-stranded DNA template, synthetic DNA oligonucleotides that can form base pairs at the ends of the desired sequence and serve as primers for DNA synthesis, a DNA polymerase, and the four deoxyribonucleoside triphosphates (dNTPs). The method generally involves the following steps (Fig. 1): (1) the reaction mixture is heated at ca.95 °C to denature the DNA; (2) the mixture is cooled to allow the primers to anneal to the denatured DNA; (3) the DNA polymerase synthesizes dsDNA, using the dNTPs, the denatured DNA as the template, and the oligonucleotides as the primers; and (4) steps 1–3 are...

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References

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry, University of Maryland, College Park, MD, 20742, USA

    Douglas Julin

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  1. Douglas Julin
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Correspondence to Douglas Julin .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Dept of Chemistry, University of Richmond, Richmond, Virginia, USA

    Ellis Bell

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© 2014 Springer Science+Business Media New York

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Julin, D. (2014). Polymerase Chain Reaction. In: Bell, E. (eds) Molecular Life Sciences. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-6436-5_95-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-6436-5_95-4

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, New York, NY

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4614-6436-5

  • eBook Packages: Springer Reference Biomedicine and Life SciencesReference Module Biomedical and Life Sciences

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