Answer to Question #124647 in Biochemistry for Water

Question

Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) is a
revolutionary method invented by Kary Mullis in
the 1980s which copies the target sequence
defined by a pair of primers exponentially. Can
exponential amplification of any random
sequence of DNA be achieved in PCR with only
single primer? Hint: Refer the schematic in the
diagram that represents randomly amplified
polymorphic DNA (RAPD) marker technology.
You can substantiate your answer with help of
this diagram, if required.

Answer 1

The amplification of a PCR product using either forward/reverse primer is possible.since there will be a template and a primer the Polymerase will work anyway. But you will get extremely low amount of product in each cycle. That means it will not be a regular Polymerase 'chain reaction' or you will not get double the number of molecules in every cycle. As a consequence you will not get the same amount of product say in 35 cycles compared to when you use both the primers. But you can do pcr even using one of the primer.