What is polymerase chain reaction (PCR)?

Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR: Polymerase Chain Reaction) is a technique for amplifying specific DNA sequences millions of times in a short time. The method uses DNA polymerase enzymes to generate large amounts of DNA from small amounts of DNA samples. DNA polymerase enzymes are key enzymes for DNA replication. The enzyme temporarily separates double-stranded DNA and adds a new nucleotide to each strand to synthesize a new DNA strand. DNA polymerases used in PCR (polymerase chain reaction) are chosen for their particularly high thermal stability, which allows them to withstand temperature changes caused by thermal cyclers while allowing DNA amplification while withstanding temperature changes caused by the thermal cycler. A typical example is Taq polymerase, which works at high temperatures and is therefore suitable for PCR.PCR is widely used in medical, forensic and genetic research and also plays an important role in genetic diagnosis and virus detection (e.g. COVID-19 testing).

The main steps of PCR are as follows:

Denaturation: separates the DNA double helix.
Annealing: the primer binds to the target DNA.
Elongation: polymerase enzymes synthesise new DNA strands.

This cycle is repeated, resulting in exponential amplification of DNA.

Thermal cyclers are generally used to perform polymerase chain reactions (PCR).Thermal cyclers repeat a set cycle by automatically controlling the temperature required for each step of the PCR (denaturation, annealing and elongation).This change in temperature is essential for the efficient progression of DNA isolation, primer binding and synthesis of new DNA.

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