Everything You Could Want To Know About PCR

PCR or polymerase chain reaction, is one of the most useful tools in a biologists tool kit. It allows you to take a DNA sample, select a part of it and make millions of copies of that section, amplifying it millions of times over. These newly grown fragments can be used as a diagnostic tool, or to generate pieces that can be used in other processes. Today we take a deep dive into the world of PCR and explore how it works, how you design the reactions, and how they're run in the lab. In a future video we may also look at how to build the thermocycler that makes this process possible, but there are lots of great tutorials on building them already online. We also take a step forward in the spider silk project and successfully isolate 1 of the 2 genes we'll need for the project. We're still trouble shooting the other so that will be the topic of a future video. The fragment we isolated is directly usable in our construction pathway and will be inserted to build a new new plasmid we're calling pKlac2g418. This means we're only a few more steps away from finishing our plasmid and making our first spider silks! Resources: Spider beer overview - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fx8TcGrCOSI Gel electrophoresis - https://www.khanacademy.org/test-prep/mcat/chemical-processes/separations-purifications/v/gel-electrophoresis Crash course chemistry - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FSyAehMdpyI&list=PL8dPuuaLjXtPHzzYuWy6fYEaX9mQQ8oGr Crash course biology - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QnQe0xW_JY4&list=PL3EED4C1D684D3ADF The manga guide to molecular biology - https://www.amazon.ca/Manga-Guide-Molecular-Biology/dp/1593272022 Genome compiler - https://designer.genomecompiler.com/app Primer3 - http://primer3.ut.ee Snap gene - http://www.snapgene.com/ ____________________________________________________________________ Support the show and future projects: Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/thethoughtemporium Nebula: https://go.nebula.tv/thethoughtemporium Ko-Fi: https://ko-fi.com/thoughtemporium Become a member: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCV5vCi3jPJdURZwAOO_FNfQ/join Store: https://thethoughtemporium.ca/ ______________________________________________________ Our Social Media Pages: Tiktok: https://www.tiktok.com/@thethoughtemporium Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thethoughtemporium/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thethoughtemporium/ Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/emporiumthought Website: http://thethoughtemporium.com/ _____________________________________________________