polymerase chain reaction

• Utilised to produce thousands to millions of copies of a specific DNA sequence to be analysed
• • Denaturation- the PCR mixture is heated to approx. 95°C to break the hydrogen bonds separating the DNA into 2 single strands.
• • Annealing- the PCR mixture is cooled to approximately 50-65°C allowing the DNA primers to bind to the target sequence using complementary base pairing.
• • Elongation- the PCR mixture is heated to approx. 72°C allowing Taq polymerase to bind to the primers and copy the temperate strand using complementary base pairings
• • Each cycle doubles the amount of DNA