The polymerase chain reaction (pcr) amplifies dna by means of repeated rounds of dna replication. this means that the ends of the amplified fragments become shorter with each round of replication.

Answer

The PCR technique is based on the natural processes a cell uses to replicate a new DNA strand. Only a few biological ingredients are needed for PCR. The integral component is the template DNA—i.e., the DNA that contains the region to be copied, such as a gene. As little as one DNA molecule can serve as a template. The only information needed for this fragment to be replicated is the sequence of two short regions of nucleotides (the subunits of DNA) at either end of the region of interest. These two short template sequences must be known so that two primers—short stretches of nucleotides that correspond to the template sequences—can be synthesized. The primers bind, or anneal, to the template at their complementary sites and serve as the starting point for copying. DNA synthesis at one primer is directed toward the other, resulting in replication of the desired intervening sequence. Also needed are free nucleotides used to build the new DNA strands and a DNA polymerase, an enzyme that does the building by sequentially adding on free nucleotides according to the instructions of the template.