The polymerase chain reaction (PCR) has recently evolved as a standard laboratory technique, popular in all areas of molecular biology research. However, the technique still has two limitations: the relatively low fidelity of Taq polymerase when compared with other polymerases (1), and its inability to efficiently amplify fragments higher than 3 kbp (2, 3). Although these two issues are irrelev...

BACKGROUND Expansion of GAA trinucleotide repeats is the molecular basis of Friedreich's ataxia (FRDA). Precise detection of the GAA expansion repeat in frataxin gene has always been a challenge. Different molecular methods have been suggested for detection of GAA expansion, including; short-PCR, long-PCR, Triplet repeat primed-PCR (TP-PCR) and southern blotting. The aim of study was to evaluat...

INTRODUCTION The main goal of this study was to examine the patient age and sex dependent expression of KCNQ1 and HERG genes that encode potassium channels responsible for the occurrence of long QT syndrome (LQTS). MATERIAL AND METHODS The study enrolled 43 families whose members suffered from LQTS type 1 (LQTS1) or 2 (LQTS2) or were healthy. The study attempted to prove that β-actin is a goo...

The polymerase chain reaction (PCR) is the most widely used technique for the study of DNA. Applications for PCR have been extended significantly by the development of "long" PCR, a technique that makes it possible to amplify DNA fragments up to 40 kb in length. This article describes two novel applications of the long PCR technique, one which simplifies restriction mapping and another which en...