PCR

In honor of Mr. Ludwig's amazing video we watched in class.. I HAD to put a video in here. Without this science we would not be able to do this sort of thing! haha :D

PCR

(polymerase chain reaction)

So basically what this would be is a scientific technique in biology to take a single or few copies of DNA to generate thousands of of copies to a special sequence. This is used in the medical scene as well as the biology scene very frequent today. Suprisingly, this technique was developed in the 1980's by Kary Mullis.

The target sequence is what you want to accomplish..

In a PCR reaction it requires:

the DNA template - or a sample

DNA polymerase - the enzyme that synthesizes new strands of DNA

a Primer - complementary pieces of DNA

Nucleotides - bases A, T, C, G

PCR uses: identifying diseasing-causing viruses, a dead person, or a suspect in a crime

Cycle 1 : DNA is melted by raising the temp to 95 degrees

After the strands are seperated the temp is lowered to 60 degrees

Each primer binds with the end of the target sequence

Only DNA that has pimer attached can  be copied

Cycle 2: Same steps.

taq is thermal stable so it's not activated by this.

4 partial double stranded sequences are made

Cycle 3: Same steps.

produces 2 target molecules & 6 longer length molecules

Cycle 4: strands melted

Primers attacthed & DNA is copied

8 copies of target & longer copies produced

Cycle 5: strands melted..

pretty much same thing except

22 targets & 10 longer are produced

this grows exponentional until cycle 30 to produce billions of the sequences

:D then you have your result.

Sources:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/projects/genome/probe/doc/TechPCR.shtml