THE UNUSUAL ORIGIN OF THE POLYMERASE CHAIN-REACTION
THE UNUSUAL ORIGIN OF THE POLYMERASE CHAIN-REACTION
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DOI：
10.1038/scientificamerican0490-56
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发表时间：
1990-04-01
影响因子：
3
通讯作者：
MULLIS, KB
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
MULLIS, KB
1983年4月的一个星期五晚上，当我握着方向盘，沿着沿着一条洒满月光的山路，进入加利福尼亚州北方的红杉林之乡时，一个不太可能的巧合、天真和幸运的错误让我突然想到了一个好主意。这就是我如何偶然发现一个可以制造无限数量基因拷贝的过程，这个过程现在被称为聚合酶链式反应（PCR）。从遗传物质DNA的一个分子开始，PCR可以在一个下午产生1000亿个类似的分子。该反应很容易执行：它只需要一个试管，一些简单的试剂和热源。人们希望复制的DNA样本可以是纯的，也可以是极其复杂的生物材料混合物的一小部分。DNA可能来自医院
Sometimes a good idea comes to you when you are not looking for it. Through an improbable combination of coincidences, naivete and lucky mistakes, such a revelation came to me one Friday night in April, 1983, as I gripped the steering wheel of my car and snaked along a moonlit mountain road into northern Califor nia's redwood country. That was how I stumbled across a process that could make unlimited numbers of copies of genes, a process now known as the polymerase chain reaction (PCR). Beginning with a single molecule of the genetic material DNA, the PCR can generate 100 billion similar molecules in an afternoon. The reaction is easy to execute: it requires no more than a test tube, a few simple reagents and a source of heat. The DNA sample that one wishes to copy can be pure, or it can be a minute part of an extremely complex mixture of biological materi als. The DNA may come from a hospi-