Synonym: polymerase chain reaction

A procedure that produces millions of copies of a short segment of DNA through repeated cycles of: 1) denaturation, 2) annealing, and 3) elongation; PCR is a very common procedure in molecular genetic testing and may be used to: 1) generate a sufficient quantity of DNA to perform a test (e.g., sequence analysis, mutation scanning), or 2) may be a test in and of itself (e.g., allele-specific amplification, trinucleotide repeat quantification).

Related Terms: Analysis of the entire coding region: Mutation scanning; Analysis of the entire coding region: Sequence analysis; conformation-sensitive gel electrophoresis; denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis; restriction fragment length polymorphism analysis; single-stranded conformational polymorphism; Southern blot; Targeted mutation analysis; X-chromosome inactivation study