where was the enzyme used in pcr found
Taq polymerase T. aquaticus is a bacterium that lives in hot springs and hydrothermal vents, and Taq polymerase was identified[1] as an enzyme able to withstand the protein-denaturing conditions (high temperature) required during PCR.[2] Therefore, it replaced the DNA polymerase from E. coli originally used in PCR.[3] Taq's optimum temperature for activity is 75–80 °C, with a half-life of greater than 2 hours at 92.5 °C, 40 minutes at 95 °C and 9 minutes at 97.5 °C, and can replicate a 1000 base pair strand of DNA in less than 10 seconds at 72 °C.[4]