Certified by the American Board of Anesthesiology, Christa Lynn Gray is a former research associate at Sandoz. Christa Lynn Gray has participated in the genetic engineering of plants through various biotechnological techniques using polymerase chain reaction. Invented by Kary Banks Mullis in 1983, polymerase chain reaction (PCR) is a technique that is used for making copies of a particular DNA in-vitro. This process has been used by genetic engineers for a wide variety of research and practical applications. It makes use of four main ingredients: template DNA, Taq polymerase, DNA primers, and nucleotides. Often, the template DNA is double-stranded and contains the DNA segment that is to be copied. At the beginning of the process, the template DNA strand is heated to split it into two complementary DNA subunits. Each DNA primer attaches to a particular binding site which lies adjacent to the targeted DNA sequence of interest on each strand. This serves as an underlying base for subsequent binding of new complementary nucleotides to the already existing nucleotides on each strand, thus forming a new double-stranded molecule. Often, this process cycle over and over, resulting in several copies of the targeted sequence, sometimes millions or billions.

1. Christa Lynn Gray

2. Certified by the American Board of Anesthesiology, Christa Lynn Gray is a former research associate
at Sandoz. Christa Lynn Gray has participated in the genetic engineering of plants through various
biotechnological techniques using polymerase chain reaction.

3. Invented by Kary Banks Mullis in 1983, polymerase chain reaction (PCR) is a technique that is used
for making copies of a particular DNA in-vitro. This process has been used by genetic engineers for a
wide variety of research and practical applications. It makes use of four main ingredients: template
DNA, Taq polymerase, DNA primers, and nucleotides. Often, the template DNA is double-stranded
and contains the DNA segment that is to be copied.

4. At the beginning of the process, the template DNA strand is heated to split it into two
complementary DNA subunits. Each DNA primer attaches to a particular binding site which lies
adjacent to the targeted DNA sequence of interest on each strand. This serves as an underlying
base for subsequent binding of new complementary nucleotides to the already existing
nucleotides on each strand, thus forming a new double-stranded molecule. Often, this process
cycle over and over, resulting in several copies of the targeted sequence, sometimes millions or
billions.