Question

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Describe the purpose of the polymerase chain reaction, along with the risks associated with the increase in target DNA strand length.

Answer 1

Ans.

PCR is a laboratory technique which involves sythesis of millions of copies of DNA from a single strand of DNA.

This technique, in essence is an amplification method, whereby the little amount of DNA present in tissue sample is copied in amount sufficient for the analysis.

This method got it's name from the key component of the reaction, "DNA polymerase" which carry out the amplification.

PCR is used very widely in the analysis of clinical samples for the presence of infectious agents like viruses, bacterias ... etc.

An other emerging area of PCR use is mutation detection which is implicited in may diseases e.g., sickle cell anemia and cystic fibrosis.

In case of target DNA strand length is increased from that optimal for the intended reaction, than it may show false positive or false negative results.

Also there may be a formation of hairpin like structure because of the annealing of the DNA strands with each other resulting in false results.