The Student Room Group

Polymerase Chain Reaction

We've been given a few questions, 3 of which i can't find the answers to anywhere so need a little hand...

1. Explain what the effect would be of having a single molecule of unwanted DNA in the sample prior to PCR.

2. Suggest two possible sources of DNA contamination in preparing a PCR sample.

3. State two precautions that could be taken to reduce the risk of DNA contamination.

The answers are proberly really obvious but its been a looonnggg day and my brains fried!

Thanks alot :smile:
xx
Becky_90
We've been given a few questions, 3 of which i can't find the answers to anywhere so need a little hand...

1. Explain what the effect would be of having a single molecule of unwanted DNA in the sample prior to PCR.

2. Suggest two possible sources of DNA contamination in preparing a PCR sample.

3. State two precautions that could be taken to reduce the risk of DNA contamination.

The answers are proberly really obvious but its been a looonnggg day and my brains fried!

Thanks alot :smile:
xx


Ok......so don't take this as gospel or anything, but here are a few suggestions....

1. The single molecule would contamintate the sample and give a wrong/inconclusive/unreadable result.

2. Could be a number of things.....saliva droplets from coughing, skin cells, mucuous from the nose from sneezing, improper storage etc etc.

3. Again, could be a number of things.....wear gloves at all times when handling the sample, wear a face mask, make sure the sample is in an appropriate container and stored correctly etc etc.

Hope that helps at least a little :smile:
Reply 2
Thanks alot.
You're welcome :smile:

Hope that helped :smile:
I got exactly the same questions and this helped me too, a whole 11 years later.