What is polymerase chain reaction?

Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) is a molecular biology technique, which can amplify specific DNA fragments in vitro without relying on organisms such as Escherichia coli or yeast.

This method was developed by Kary Mullis in 1983, when he was an employee of Cetus Company and the winner of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1993. Replication of DNA fragments is a simple, cheap and reliable method, and this concept is applicable to many fields of modern biology and related science. PCR is probably the most widely used technology in molecular biology. This technology is used in biomedical research, criminal evidence collection and molecular archaeology.

Microbial replication is a time-consuming and labor-intensive process. First, DNA was cut by restriction endonuclease, then ligase was added to the vector, and then it was sent to the competent cells of Escherichia coli by transient electroporation or heat shock, and the strains were propagated and cultured in a large number of Petri dishes, and then separated and purified by complicated methods.

So only one hour of PCR can save a lot of time and complicated operations. Polymerase chain reaction technology is widely used in medical and biological laboratories, for example, judging whether a genetic disease will be displayed in samples, diagnosing infectious diseases, replicating genes, and identifying parents.