{"title":"How reliable is PCR? A mini review.","authors":"Helen Konrad, Andreas Beyer","doi":"10.1017/S0033583525100024","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>The question of whether PCR is reliable sounds strange at first. However, looking at the scientific literature from the 1950s and 60s, one will find many publications on the physicochemistry of DNA that have been forgotten meanwhile. Quite a few of these studies have shown that DNA is thermolabile, which consequently raises the question of whether this thermolability is relevant in the context of PCR, namely in the denaturation phase. However, it can be shown that this is not the case: losses due to thermal hydrolysis are irrelevant for the performance of contemporary PCR protocols and their specificity as well as for the significance of their results. There is now a huge amount of scientifically verified and published data on technical and molecular aspects of PCR, a small selection of which we quote here. In addition, we present some primary data that also clearly demonstrate the reliability of PCR.</p>","PeriodicalId":20828,"journal":{"name":"Quarterly Reviews of Biophysics","volume":"58 ","pages":"e15"},"PeriodicalIF":7.2000,"publicationDate":"2025-07-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Quarterly Reviews of Biophysics","FirstCategoryId":"99","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1017/S0033583525100024","RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"BIOPHYSICS","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
The question of whether PCR is reliable sounds strange at first. However, looking at the scientific literature from the 1950s and 60s, one will find many publications on the physicochemistry of DNA that have been forgotten meanwhile. Quite a few of these studies have shown that DNA is thermolabile, which consequently raises the question of whether this thermolability is relevant in the context of PCR, namely in the denaturation phase. However, it can be shown that this is not the case: losses due to thermal hydrolysis are irrelevant for the performance of contemporary PCR protocols and their specificity as well as for the significance of their results. There is now a huge amount of scientifically verified and published data on technical and molecular aspects of PCR, a small selection of which we quote here. In addition, we present some primary data that also clearly demonstrate the reliability of PCR.
期刊介绍：
Quarterly Reviews of Biophysics covers the field of experimental and computational biophysics. Experimental biophysics span across different physics-based measurements such as optical microscopy, super-resolution imaging, electron microscopy, X-ray and neutron diffraction, spectroscopy, calorimetry, thermodynamics and their integrated uses. Computational biophysics includes theory, simulations, bioinformatics and system analysis. These biophysical methodologies are used to discover the structure, function and physiology of biological systems in varying complexities from cells, organelles, membranes, protein-nucleic acid complexes, molecular machines to molecules. The majority of reviews published are invited from authors who have made significant contributions to the field, who give critical, readable and sometimes controversial accounts of recent progress and problems in their specialty. The journal has long-standing, worldwide reputation, demonstrated by its high ranking in the ISI Science Citation Index, as a forum for general and specialized communication between biophysicists working in different areas. Thematic issues are occasionally published.
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