fundamentals
Genetic Diagnostic Technologies
Polymerase chain reaction (PCR)
The polymerase chain reaction (PCR) is a laboratory technique that can produce many copies of a gene or segments of a gene, which makes studying the gene much easier. A specific segment of deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA), such as a specific gene, can be copied (amplified) in a laboratory. Starting with one DNA molecule, at the end of 30 doublings (only a few hours later) about a billion copies are produced. 