Polymerase Chain Reaction and DNA

1. The polymerase chain reaction (PCR) is a method using molecular biology for amplifying DNA without using a living organism (Polymerase, 2004). It is commonly used in medical and biological research laboratories for such things as detection of hereditary disease, identification of genetic fingerprints, the diagnosis of infectious diseases, the cloning of genes, and paternity testing. DNA polymerase occurs naturally in all living organisms and its function is to duplicate DNA when cells divide. It binds to a single strand of DNA and creates a complimentary strand. In the original PCR process, the enzyme was used in vitro, and the double-stranded DNA was separated into two single strands by heating it at 96oC, but at this temperature the DNA polymerase was destroyed, meaning it had to be replaced after the heating stage of each cycle. This made the PCR process time consuming, and necessitated large amounts of DNA polymerase.

In 1976, DNA polymerase was isolated from Thermus aquaticus, a thermophilic bacterium, and it could be isolated in a purer form from this bacterium than that from other sources and had an optima

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