You add the following components (in the correct volumes and concentrations) to a tube to perform a PCR reaction Buffer Magnesium chloride Forward and reverse primers DNA polymerase (e.g.,Taq) Template DNA PCR-grade water True or false: These components are sufficient to successfully carry out a PCR reaction. a. True b. False

These components are not sufficient to successfully perform a PCR reaction. Deoxynucleoside triphosphates (dATP, dGTP, dCTP, dTTP) are missing so that the PCR reaction can occur perfectly.

The PCR technique allows a specific fragment of the DNA molecule to be amplified thousands of times in just a few hours. This technique revolutionized research in molecular biology because it had taken a long time for DNA amplification. From PCR it is possible to obtain enough copies of a part of DNA to detect and analyze the sequence that is the target of the study.

For a PCR reaction to be performed a solution with some components must be prepared. These components are:

Magnesium chloride buffer (to optimize reaction and act as a cofactor for polymerase)
Forward and reverse primers (to customize the start of the enzyme reaction)
DNA polymerase (Enzyme required for replication of desired DNA region.)
DNA Template (the DNA to be copied)
PCR-grade water
Deoxynucleoside triphosphates: dATP, dGTP, dCTP, dTTP (act as bricks in the construction of DNA molecules).