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1. (n.) polymerase chain reaction
the laboratory production of numerous copies of a gene by separating the two strands of the DNA containing the gene segment, marking its location with a primer, and using a DNA polymerase to assemble a copy alongside each segment and continuously copy the copies.
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| Definition of 'polymerase chain reaction' |
U.S. National Library of Medicine |
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1. polymerase chain reaction
In vitro method for producing large amounts of specific DNA or RNA fragments of defined length and sequence from small amounts of short oligonucleotide flanking sequences (primers). The essential steps include thermal denaturation of the double-stranded target molecules, annealing of the primers to their complementary sequences, and extension of the annealed primers by enzymatic synthesis with DNA polymerase. The reaction is efficient, specific, and extremely sensitive. Uses for the reaction include disease diagnosis, detection of difficult-to-isolate pathogens, mutation analysis, genetic testing, DNA sequencing, and analyzing evolutionary relationships.
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Definitions of polymerase chain reaction 
