Polymerase Chain Reaction


Enables a scientist to make many copies of a target region from an original double-stranded DNA molecule (called the template DNA)

Step 1: Separation of the DNA strands by heating to 95°C.

Step 2: Bind single-stranded primers to complementary sequences on both separated template DNA strands (55°C).

Step 3: Extend primers with Taq polymerase, which brings in new nucleotides to build new DNA strands (72°C).