Building The Perfect Beast

Date: February 15, 1999Enhanced PCR Kits and Reagents Sigma's RedTaq DNA Polymerase facilitates gel loading. During the past decade, the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) has become one of the most versatile tools used in the molecular biology laboratory. Applications range from the analysis of genomic DNA samples and the production of DNA fragments for cloning systems to direct DNA sequencing. The reaction requires a minimum of reagents and equipment compared to many lab protocols and can be se

Written byDebra Swanson
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Date: February 15, 1999Enhanced PCR Kits and Reagents

Sigma's RedTaq DNA Polymerase facilitates gel loading.
During the past decade, the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) has become one of the most versatile tools used in the molecular biology laboratory. Applications range from the analysis of genomic DNA samples and the production of DNA fragments for cloning systems to direct DNA sequencing. The reaction requires a minimum of reagents and equipment compared to many lab protocols and can be set up simply and quickly. It can be as useful to the solo underfunded bench scientist as it is to teams of production scientists using the most advanced automated equipment, generating significant amounts of data in a short time.

The basic premise of the reaction is simple--DNA can be amplified many thousandfold or millionfold in a tube. A typical amplification reaction includes a minimal amount of the nucleic acid template, two oligonucleotide primers, ...

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