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PCR process

If the denaturation step of PCR was omitted, what would happen to the PCR process?

How is PCR used to determine that a person is infected with a specific bacterium?

Now that we have PCR, why would we use culture techniques?

If a DNA polymerase other than the polymerase from Thermus aquaticus was used in the PCR process, what would happen?

List the stages of PCR and describe the function or purpose of each.

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IF you omit the denaturation step 1) the cDNA or DNA that is being amplified remains double stranded and primer sequences won't bing 2) If at least one denaturation step has occurred and is not repeated than the primers will have bound but do not detach to allow further amplification

Specific primer sequences can be designed only to target the specific DNA of a bacterium and not the DNA of other bacteria or the host. A positive PCR band indicates specific bacterium.

PCR may not always be cost effective. For example there are hundreds of thousands of bacterial strains, therefore you would have to use hundreds of thousands of specific primers and PCR reaction, which could get expensive. Culture allows you to narrow the field prior to picking specific primers, or treatment options. Often you are just trying to establish a diagnosis for selection of the most common bacterial forms and treat with an appropriate antibiotic (ie aerobic or anaerobic, rod or sphere, gram positive or gram negative). However, sometimes there is an outbreak particularly in a hospital setting that you may ...

Solution Summary

PCR process is discussed if the denaturation step of the PCR was omitted.