The polymerase chain reaction, or PCR is nothing short of a miracle in the field of biotechnologies: learn how to optimize this beautiful technique with our PCR annealing temperature calculator!

Here you will learn everything you need to know about PCR, the materials needed, and the process itself. We will answer the following questions:

• What is the annealing in PCR?
• How do I find the annealing temperature for the best results?
• How do I use our primer annealing temperature calculator? (don’t worry, it’s extremely simple!)

Keep reading to learn more!

An introduction to the polymerase chain reaction

The polymerase chain reaction is an unexpected gift from biology. It’s a laboratory technique that allows multiplying a small strand of DNA into an enormous amount of identical copies only by providing the right tools to an enzyme and the DNA’s building blocks.

The process uses the natural mechanism of DNA replication (evolved over millions and billions of years) to its advantage: harnessed and carefully controlled, this allows us to target a single specific fragment of genetic code and greatly amplify its signal when analyzed.

To understand how PCR works, we need to discover DNA first!