background cutaneous leishmaniasis with zoonotic and anthroponotic forms is an endemic disease and a health problem in our country. identification of parasite species and the type of disease is very important for treatment of disease as well as planning the control program. this study was carried out to identify the parasite species causing cutaneous leishmaniasis by nested pcr in poledokhtar d...

INTRODUCTION On April 25, 1953 James D. Watson and Francis Crick publish "a radically different structure" for DNA, thereby founding the field of Molecular Genetics. Their structure involves two strands of complementary base-paired DNA, running in opposite directions as a double helix. They conclude their report saying that "It has not escaped our notice that the specific pairing we have postul...

George Maltezos, Alvaro Gomez, Jiang Zhong, Frank A. Gomez, and Axel Scherer Department of Electrical Engineering, California Institute of Technology, 1200 East California Boulevard, MS 200-36 Pasadena, California 91125, USA Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, California State University, Los Angeles, 5151 State University Drive, Los Angeles, California 90032-8202, USA Keck School of Medi...

s The polymerase chain reaction (PCR) is a technique in molecular biology to amplify a single or a few copies of a piece of DNA across several orders of magnitude, generating thousands to millions of copies of a particular DNA sequence. PCR is now a common and often indispensable technique used in medical and biological research labs for a variety of applications. There are three major steps in...

This essay on the polymerase chain reaction is one of a series developed as part of FASEB's efforts to educate the general public, and the legislators whom it elects, about the benefits of fundamental biomedical research-particularly how investment in such research leads to scientific progress, improved health, and economic well-being.

Quantitative PCR assays are now the standard method for viral diagnostics. These assays must be specific, as well as sensitive, to detect the potentially low starting copy number of viral genomic material. We describe a new technique, polymerase chain displacement reaction (PCDR), which uses multiple nested primers in a rapid, capped, one-tube reaction that increases the sensitivity of normal q...

The polymerase chain reaction (PCR) is a powerful and widely used technique that has greatly advanced our ability to analyze genes. Genomic deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) present in cells contains many thousands of genes. This makes it difficult to isolate and analyze any individual gene. PCR allows specific DNA sequences, usually corresponding to genes or parts of genes, to be copied from genomic...

PCR depends on generation of a deoxyoligonucleotide complementary to the known 3' terminus of the portion of DNA to be amplified. This is then annealed with the appropriate strand of heat-denatured DNA and used as a primer for synthesis by a DNA polymerase of a full-length complementary strand (Fig. 1). The two strands are then separated by heat denaturation and the process repeated. However, i...

We present a Bayesian hierarchical model for quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR) data, aiming at relative quantification of DNA copy number in different biological samples. The model is specified in terms of a hidden Markov model for fluorescence intensities measured at successive cycles of the polymerase chain reaction. The efficiency of the reaction is assumed to depend on ...