A technician starts a PCR with one molecule of the template…
Contributed by StemPy LabTry it on paper first. A hint, the key idea and the worked solution are here when you need them.
A technician starts a PCR with one molecule of the template. The efficiency of every cycle is , so the number of molecules is multiplied by in each cycle.
- How many million molecules are there after cycles?
- The technician needs at least one billion molecules. How many cycles does she need?
Need a reminder? The key ideaShow
PCR needs a template, two primers, nucleotides and Taq polymerase. Each cycle has denaturation, annealing and extension. With a perfect efficiency, . With an efficiency , .
The worked solution
Have you tried it?
Work it out on paper first. It is fine to get stuck or make a mistake: that is how we learn. When you are ready, go through the solution one step at a time, and check each step against your own.
Given. . Factor per cycle: .
Plan. .
Step 1. (a) , which is million molecules.
Step 2. (b) We need . , so . The number of cycles must be a whole number: cycles.
Answer: million molecules; cycles.
Check. With a perfect efficiency, cycles would give more than a billion. A cycle with needs more cycles.
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