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 PCR

The polymerase chain reaction uses short synthetic primers to amplify a specific region of DNA through multiple rounds of denaturation, annealing and elongation.  Each round of amplification doubles the amount of DNA present between the two primers.  After 30 rounds of replication up to 1,000,000,000 copies of the fragment of DNA between the primers could be produced.

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This is an excellent animation from Cold Spring Harbor of how PCR works.  http://www.dnalc.org/ddnalc/resources/pcr.html

Practice problems for PCR and site directed mutagenesis

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