gene amplification

Technique by which selected DNA from a single cell can be duplicated indefinitely until there is a sufficient amount to analyse by conventional genetic techniques.

Gene amplification uses a procedure called the polymerase chain reaction. The sample of DNA is mixed with a solution of enzymes called polymerases, which enable it to replicate, and with a plentiful supply of nucleotides, the building blocks of DNA. The mixture is repeatedly heated and cooled. At each warming, the double-stranded DNA present separates into two single strands, and with each cooling the polymerase assembles a new paired strand for each single strand. Each cycle takes approximately 30 minutes to complete, so that after 10 hours there is one million times more DNA present than at the start.

The technique can be used to test for genetic defects in a single cell taken from an embryo, before the embryo is reimplanted in in vitro fertilization.