CH391L/S12/PCR and advanced PCR techniques

What's PCR?

PCR stands for polymerase chain reaction, which is powerful technique used for in vitro exponential amplification of a specific DNA region (target region)that lies between two regions (primers) of known DNA sequence, resulting in a large quantity of DNA (~ micrograms of DNA).

Short history of PCR

The invention of PCR has long been considered as an "Eureka" event occurred on Kary Mullis' travel to his cabin[Eureka moment]. However, it would not happen if the following milestones in molecular biology had not taken place:

• Complementary double-stranded DNA model proposed by Watson and Crick [1].

References

1. WATSON JD and CRICK FH. Molecular structure of nucleic acids; a structure for deoxyribose nucleic acid. Nature. 1953 Apr 25;171(4356):737-8. DOI:10.1038/171737a0 |