Nuclear DNA Primers

Abstract

Since its introduction in 1985, the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) (1) has profoundly affected the way in which molecular studies are conducted. Olsen et al. (2) first proposed that short single copy DNA sequences could be amplified by PCR from cloned DNA using specific primers. This requires sequencing only a short tract of DNA from any cloned sequence. Primers for PCR can therefore be constructed by sequencing anonymous cDNA or genomic clones, clones used in mapping projects, RAPD fragments or previously published DNA sequences. Here we will consider only the latter source, as ‘probe isolation’ is covered in Chapters 12.2 and 12.3 and DNA sequencing in Chapter 8.2.