Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR)

Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) is one of the most important techniques for prenatal diagnosis. It can amplify a specific DNA sequence from tiny fetal samples with high efficiency within a few hours. PCR is a cyclic DNA synthesis reaction by DNA polymerase in an automated system that amplifies the target sequence to over 100 million copies in a test tube. This technology is useful not only for invasive prenatal genetic diagnostic testing but also for noninvasive prenatal genetic testing.