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.

Descriptor ID	D016133
MeSH Number(s)	E05.393.620.500
Concept/Terms	Polymerase Chain Reaction Polymerase Chain Reaction Polymerase Chain Reactions Reaction, Polymerase Chain Reactions, Polymerase Chain PCR Inverse PCR Inverse PCR PCR, Inverse Inverse Polymerase Chain Reaction Nested Polymerase Chain Reaction Nested Polymerase Chain Reaction Nested PCR PCR, Nested Anchored PCR Anchored PCR PCR, Anchored Anchored Polymerase Chain Reaction

Below are MeSH descriptors whose meaning is more general than "Polymerase Chain Reaction".

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