We all know that DNA is important for our genetic makeup. But what do you know about the role of nucleotides in PCR? In this blog post, we'll talk about what nucleotides are and how they work with Taq polymerase to create copies of your DNA using a process called polymerase chain reaction (PCR).
Nucleotides are the building blocks of DNA and RNA. DNA is a molecule that carries the genetic code, and RNA is a molecule that carries out the instructions in your DNA.
The two most common bases that make up nucleotides are adenine (A) and thymine (T) for DNA, and uracil for RNA.
Adenine is a purine nucleotide that is found in both DNA and RNA, while thymine is pyrimidine that only exists in DNA. Cytosine and uracil are both pyrimidines that can be found in either type of nucleic acid
Each nucleotide has a complementary base. A is paired with T and C is paired with G.
A and T are complementary because the three hydrogen bonds between them are all oriented in the same direction. They form what's called an antiparallel strand, which means that one strand runs in the opposite direction from another strand when you align them end-to-end. The strands fit together like a zipper, but only if you have one strand flipped around 180° relative to its partner; otherwise, it won't work and only creates mismatched bases at their junction points.
C and G also form hydrogen bonds in an antiparallel arrangement, so they can be complementary as well—but this time with two additional base pairs formed between Cs on both strands of DNA: CG (as opposed to just CA). These extra links make C-G pairing even more stable than A-T pairing—which helps explain why GC pairs occur much less frequently than AT pairs do (and why they're not found at every position along DNA).
As you may remember, DNA is a double helix. This means that the two strands are complementary to each other. The first step of PCR uses heat to separate these strands so that each original template is now being copied from both ends by an enzyme called Taq polymerase.
As the DNA strands separate, they're cooled and primers are added. Primers are short pieces of DNA that match the target sequence. Primers are added to the template by an enzyme called Taq polymerase (also known as DNA polymerase).
Primers initiate copying and help make sure that each new piece of DNA is exactly the same length as the previous one, with no gaps or extra material. This is important because if there were any changes in between these starting points—for example, if two strands were slightly different lengths—then there would be an opportunity for errors during replication that could lead to mutations in your genetic code!
Next, Taq polymerase enzyme is added. This enzyme finds the primers and starts building two new strands of DNA from each template strand. The reaction temperature is raised to about 95˚C for 10 minutes, which causes melting of double-stranded DNA and separation of strands. Then the process moves into the elongation phase where two new strands are synthesized using one strand as a template for synthesis (see figure 2).
Taq polymerase does not recognize unprimed DNA so this enzyme will only start working when there's no primer left at all - meaning that after primer annealing you must wait until your PCR product has completely separated before adding Taq polymerase or else it won't work properly!
At the end of each cycle, the temperature is raised again to melt the strands so another cycle can begin. This is called denaturation and allows new copies of DNA to form.
With PCR, a scientist can use very small amounts of material to build millions more copies. This makes it possible for scientists to study things that are too small to be seen with the naked eye and that would be too expensive or time-consuming to study otherwise (like cells).
If you want to find out whether someone has a particular disease or not, you might ask a doctor if they can do something called "DNA testing". The doctor will take some blood or tissue samples from you. They will put your DNA into an instrument called a PCR machine that heats up your sample and makes copies of it over and over again until there are so many copies that they're easy enough for scientists like me to read!
PCR also has applications in forensics: police officers who collect evidence at crime scenes can send them off for DNA testing using this technique because it's much easier than trying something like fingerprinting.
PCR allows scientists to make millions of copies of DNA from very small amounts of material. It works by heating the DNA, separating it into two strands (this is called denaturing), cooling the mixture, adding primers that mark where new DNA can attach and then repeating this process many times over until you have a very large amount of identical copies in your test tube!
One of the great things about PCR is that it makes it possible to work with very small amounts of material. This is important because sometimes there isn’t much DNA available for testing. For example, if you want to test a patient’s blood sample for the presence of a certain type of virus, but only have one or two drops at your disposal, PCR can help you make many more copies from those few samples before sending them off for further analysis—or even just looking at them under an electron microscope!