Polymerase Chain Reaction

[teehees]

A quick question which I just want to see that I understand right

So first aid states that in PCR you add premade DNA primers specific for the sequence to be amplified.

I always understood this to mean that if you're looking for an ATCG region, you're going to put in DNA primers specific/complementary to that. And if it works that means hey that region exists in there

But from my reading of a UWSA question explanation, it looks like you actually put in the "flanking DNA primers" ie the region next to it?? This is in bold and actually makes less sense to me

How do you know what primers to give in that case? Do we know the flanking regions for every sequence of interest? And are they always the same?

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[AZ7]

The human genome project which mapped the all the genes of the human genome was completed in 2003. So yea, i guess we do know the flanking regions for every sequence of interest.

 

[DrPicard]

You put in primers since DNAP can't start synthesizing strands. To put in primers that are complementary to the starting point of the gene, you must know the code; the human genome project provides that.

DNA has two strands, anti parallel. The primers for each strand will lie at opposite ends for this reason. That's flanking primers.

 

[teehees]

Alright sounds good!

I'm surprised I was the only person who got the wrong idea by First Aids explanation :/

 

[DrPicard]

The thing with concepts is that they're really hard when you're trying to first understand them and often really easy subsequently

 

[DrPicard]

I think I could've worded what I said a bit better btw.

The primers are "flanking" codes since they lie at the ends of the gene in question. Ie gene in the middle, and primers at both ends. Hence by flanking DNA primers they don't mean areas that flank the primers, but rather its a descriptive term applied to the primers ie they flank the gene in question.