Question

What is the role of PCR in the amplification of DNA strands?

Answer 1

Polymerase chain reaction:

1. A laboratory method is used to make many copies of a specific piece of DNA from a sample that contains very tiny amounts of that DNA.
2. Polymerase chain reaction allows these pieces of DNA to be amplified so they can be detected.
3. The polymerase chain reaction is utilized in the amplification of a well-defined, short part of a DNA strand.
4. It can be a single gene or even a segment of a gene. In contrast to living entities, the process of PCR could copy only short fragments of DNA, typically up to 10 Kb.
5. Some methods are capable of copying fragments up to 40 Kb in size which is much lesser than the chromosomal DNA of eukaryotic cells, for instance, a human cell comprises close to 3 billion base pairs.