Question

Name the source organism that possesses Taq polymerase. What is so special about the function of this enzyme?

Answer 1

Taq polymerase is a thermostable DNA polymerase which is named after the bacterium from which it was first originally isolated -Thermus aquaticus.

It is used in the polymerase chain reaction or PCR, a method which is used to amplify the quantity of short segments of DNA. This enzyme is able to withstand the protein-denaturing conditions (high temperature) required during PCR or it is thermostable.