Summary and Definition of Pcr

Polymerase chain reaction, PCR, is a method of amplifying copies of specific DNA segments. Simply put, it is “molecular photocopying.” In the processes of genetic and molecular analyses, significant amounts of DNA are required for successful research, this would be very difficult without PCR amplification. To explain it very simply, the first step of the PCR process is heating the sample until the DNA either becomes denatured or until it separates to two single stranded segments of DNA. Primers are then added to the DNA, and the mixture is allowed to cool so the double strands can re-form. The Taq polymerase enzyme then builds two new DNA strands by using the original segments as templates. The product is a duplicate of the original DNA used in the process, each of the molecules in the product containing one of the old and one of the new strands of the DNA. The process can then be repeated to produce more and more copies of the DNA segment. An important part of PCR is the thermal cycling, which is carried out by a machine in the lab. The Thermocycler raises and lowers the temperature in accordance with the process in very specific, programmed intervals. The discovery of loop mediated isothermal amplification PCR (LAMP), has led to a change in the processes of PCR in labs. LAMP is considered to be much easier as well as time efficient because instead of thermal cycling, it uses a constant temperature. Along with the aforementioned benefits, thermal denaturation of the DNA double strands are not required with the LAMP method, and it is more cost effective than the traditional method of thermal cycling.