Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) Flashcards
1
Q
Polymerase chain reaction
A
Method in which a thermocycler amplifies sections of identical DNA
2
Q
Target DNA
A
The DNA sequence to be amplified
3
Q
Taq polymerase
A
Type of enzyme that builds DNA strands and can withstand high temperatures
4
Q
Primers
A
2 artificially synthesised sequences (~20 nucleotides) complementary to sequences either end of target DNA used by taq polymerase as starting points
5
Q
Denaturation
A
Target DNA heated to ~95*C to break hydrogen bonds to split DNA strands into two
6
Q
Annealing
A
Temperature reduced to ~55*C to allow primers to anneal to templates either side of target sequence
7
Q
Extension
A
Temperature raised to 72*C to allow taq polymerase to copy template strand using free nucleotides
