Question

a new forensics lab will be opening soon, and the proper elements for polymerase chain reaction (pcr) analysis must be purchased. in addition to the dna samples from the crime scenes, what other molecular items would be required?

• primers and rna polymerase
• primers, dna polymerase, and nucleotides
• primers and nucleotides
• only primers
• primers, rna polymerase, and nucleotides

Explanation:

PCR requires short DNA primers to initiate replication, heat-stable DNA polymerase to synthesize new DNA strands, and nucleotides (dNTPs) as building blocks for the new DNA. RNA polymerase is not used in PCR (it is for transcription), so options involving RNA polymerase are incorrect. Missing DNA polymerase or nucleotides would prevent DNA amplification, so the complete set is primers, DNA polymerase, and nucleotides.

Answer:

B. primers, DNA polymerase, and nucleotides