Taq Polymerase
Definition
Thermostable DNA polymerase from Thermus aquaticus, the enzyme that makes PCR practical. Stable at 95°C, it extends primers in the 5'-to-3' direction but lacks 3'-to-5' proofreading activity, so error rate per cycle is approximately 10⁻⁴.
Related terms
- Amplicon
- The double-stranded DNA fragment produced between two PCR primers. In forensic STR typing, amplicon size determines whether a locus can be recovered...
- Depurination
- Hydrolytic cleavage of the N-glycosidic bond between deoxyribose and a purine base (adenine or guanine), generating an abasic (apurinic) site. Abasic sites...
- Interlocus Drop-Out
- Failure of larger-amplicon loci to amplify in a degraded-DNA sample while shorter loci succeed. Results in a partial profile that includes only...
- Mini-STR
- A PCR assay in which both primers sit within a few base pairs of the STR repeat, producing amplicons as short as...
Explained in
- DNA, RNA and the Central Dogma of Molecular BiologyThermostable DNA polymerase from Thermus aquaticus, the enzyme that makes PCR practical. Stable at 95°C, it extends primers in the 5'-to-3' direction but lacks...