polymerase chain reaction
nounDefinition of polymerase chain reaction
: an in vitro technique for rapidly synthesizing large quantities of a given DNA segment that involves separating the DNA into its two complementary strands, using DNA polymerase to synthesize two-stranded DNA from each single strand, and repeating the process
—abbreviation PCR
Examples of polymerase chain reaction in a Sentence
Recent Examples on the Web
The process for analyzing DNA that Dr. Mullis invented is called polymerase chain reaction, or PCR. — New York Times, "Kary B. Mullis, 74, Dies; Found a Way to Analyze DNA and Won Nobel," 15 Aug. 2019 Known as the polymerase chain reaction, or PCR technique, his discovery allowed molecular biologists to create millions of copies of a single strand of DNA in a few hours. — Peter Fimrite, SFChronicle.com, "Kary Mullis, eccentric Berkley-educated chemistry Nobelist, dies," 10 Aug. 2019 After an initial polymerase chain reaction test for the fungus DNA came back positive, ICA launched its contingency plan, closing four farms and destroying all plants within 10 meters of samples that tested positive. — Erik Stokstad, Science | AAAS, "Devastating banana disease may have reached Latin America, could drive up global prices," 17 July 2019 By the nineteen-nineties, when PCR (polymerase chain reaction) analysis became the standard technique of genetic paternity testing, the accuracy of results had climbed to 99.9 per cent. — Margaret Talbot, The New Yorker, "The Paternity Reveal," 24 June 2019 The first hint of these indirect effects came in the 1980s and ’90s with the advent of the polymerase chain reaction, a technique that enabled researchers to look at nucleotide-level variation in gene sequences for the first time. — Quanta Magazine, "Theorists Debate How ‘Neutral’ Evolution Really Is," 8 Nov. 2018 In Hawaii, officials confirm cases by trying to pick up and amplify fragments of worm DNA from sick patients’ cerebrospinal fluid or other tissue (a polymerase chain reaction test). — Beth Mole, Ars Technica, "Hawaii warns tourists of parasitic worm that can burrow into human brains," 30 May 2019 For decades, that was the crux of the problem: Kimura had proposed neutral theory at a time before inexpensive sequencing technology and the polymerase chain reaction became available, when gene sequence data were sparse. — Quanta Magazine, "Theorists Debate How ‘Neutral’ Evolution Really Is," 8 Nov. 2018 The team had been forced to destroy the weevil, because part of its body was needed for the DNA-generating process, called polymerase chain reaction amplification or PCR. — Lorraine Boissoneault, Smithsonian, "Jurassic Park’s Unlikely Symbiosis With Real-World Science," 15 June 2018These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'polymerase chain reaction.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
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