PCR and RT-PCR are still experimental techniques, ISSN 2753-8176 (online), DOI:10.13140/RG.2.2.12112.17920
PCR and RT-PCR are still experimental techniques Ana Pedro 1 1 Gwyntwr1386 Healthcare CIC, Regus Chester Business Park, Heronsway, Chester, CH49QR, UK 1. Corresponding author: anapedrolaboratories@gmail.com The polymerase chain reaction (PCR) is a technique currently used to rapidly amplify a very small sample of a complete or partial specific DNA sequence, which is exponentially amplified in a series of cycles of temperature changes to a large enough amount of DNA to be studied in detail. PCR was invented in 1983 by the American biochemist Kary Mullis (1). PCR uses short single strand DNA fragments (oligonucleotides) which are complementary sequences to the target DNA region in study named primers, a DNA polymerase and deoxynucleoside triphosphates (dNTPs, nucleotides containing triphosphate groups), which are the unit blocks from which the DNA polymerase synthesizes a new DNA strand. In the first step of PCR, the two strands of the DNA double helix are physically separated