Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) is a three step process that makes it possible to generate billions of replica molecules of DNA from a single copy. It was developed by Kay Mullis in the 1980s and he would later win a Nobel Prize for the discovery.
Step 1 – Denaturation
- Heat is applied to he sample to break the hydrogen bonds in DNA. This results in two single stands of DNA
Step 2 – Annealing
- Primers attach to each single strand of DNA
Step 3 – Elongation
- Taq polymerase adds free nucleotides to end of the primers in the 5′ → 3′ direction.