PCR 1

What will students do in this lab?

You will learn what PCR does and how it works.

You will use PCR to make many copies of the ITS2 region from every plant species in your supplements. ITS2 is a region of the genome that has been sequenced in many plant species. We will eventually sequence the ITS2 region from all the species in your supplements and compare the sequences to known ITS2 sequences. This will allow us to determine what species are in your supplements.

Learning goals

By the end of this lab, you should be able to describe:

• the goal of PCR.

• the steps in PCR, and what occurs in each step.

• the reason for doing PCR in our project.

• the ITS genomic region and why we are using it.

You will PCR amplify the ITS region from the DNA you extracted from your supplement

Use these links (or use the links under Online labs / PCR1 above):

• Learn about PCR

• Learn about ITS2, the region you will amplify

• Set up your thermocycler

• Set up the PCR