Question

All of the following are required for PCR except

A) amino acids as building blocks
B) double stranded DNA molecules or cDNA
C) DNA polymerase
D) deoxyribonucleotides
E) primers

Answer 1

Amino acids are not a component required for PCR; rather, the PCR process requires a DNA template, deoxyribonucleotides, primers, and DNA polymerase.

Step-by-step explanation:

The component that is not required for PCR (Polymerase Chain Reaction) is A) amino acids as building blocks. PCR is a technique used to amplify a segment of DNA by generating thousands to millions of copies of a particular DNA sequence. The process requires several key components: B) double stranded DNA molecules or cDNA to serve as the template, D) deoxyribonucleotides (dATP, dCTP, dGTP, dTTP) which are the building blocks for new DNA strands, E) primers that are short DNA sequences complementary to the target DNA which initiate the synthesis, and C) DNA polymerase, particularly Taq polymerase from the thermophilic bacterium Thermus aquaticus, which synthesizes new DNA strands by adding nucleotides in the direction from the primers. Amino acids are not directly involved in the PCR process; rather, they are the building blocks of proteins, and in the context of PCR, the relevant protein is the DNA polymerase enzyme itself, which is already in a functional form and does not require additional amino acids.Amino acids are the building blocks of proteins like DNA polymerase, not substances used in the PCR itself.