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What is the Polymerase Chain Reaction?

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The Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR), devised by Kary Mullis in the mid-1980's has revolutionized molecular biology by allowing a whole new approach to the study and analysis of genes. i) What is PCR? ii) What are the steps involved? iii) What are the necessary reagents involved in making the PCR work?

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The solution discusses what is the Polymerase Chain Reaction.

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The PCR essentially is a method that enables one to 'photocopy' DNA. One can go from very few strands of DNA to millions in only a few cycles, giving a researcher ample DNA to utilize in many different experiments. Before PCR, one was forced to isolate very large samples of tissue to get enough DNA to enable cloning into bacteria (which was grown to large amounts and DNA isolated again). In some instances, it was very difficult to obtain enough sample to work with, a good example of this would be in a murder case where only very little sample may be present. PCR made it possible to work with very minute amounts of DNA (as few as 1 ...

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