Need to teach PCR?

Need some high quality diagrams to explain polymerase chain reaction (PCR), designing primers, or some combo of both? You have come to the right place! There seemed to be a complete lack of high quality diagrams of primer sequences and the PCR cycle, so I drew some.


The primers. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Primers_RevComp.svg



 Melting the template DNA. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Primers_RevComp_Melted2.svg

Annealing of the primers. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Primers_RevComp_Annealed2.svg

Elongation by DNA polymerase from the primers. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Primers_RevComp_Elongation2.svg

These diagrams are all in scalable vector graphics (SVG) format and free for others to use and edit. Inkscape is a great, free, SVG editor, feel free to grab it and modify these images to your heart's content!

Software used:
Inkscape: Vector graphics