Polymerase Chain Reaction: A Powerful Diagnostic and Research Tool

To fully understand cellular processes, scientists often examine events at the level of nucleic acids and protein molecules. These studies are complicated by the fact that cells have miniscule amounts of molecules of interest which are too small to be seen. So we require molecular tools to visualize these molecules. Polymerase chain reaction is one such technique widely used in molecular biology and produce quantities that are sufficient to study and visualize. With the advancement in this technique, it has revolutionized the field of research and diagnosis. In this article, we present a review on the principle, basic technique, applications, limitations and recent advances of Polymerase Chain Reaction.