title: Theoretical description of the polymerase chain reaction.
abstract: Taking into account expressions for the efficiency of the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) recently deduced from enzymological considerations, and making use of a continuous model based on the law of mass action, closed form solutions are derived that enable a complete description of the standard and quantitative competitive PCR methods. The resulting behaviour is in reasonable agreement with that from a previous, empirical, discrete approach; but the latter is nonetheless shown to overestimate the amplification yield by as much as 30% due to the weak assumption of a constant efficiency during the cycle duration. The present formalism will facilitate the implementation of accurate fitting procedures of experimental data to manage quantification.
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Biología Celular, Universidad Simón Bolívar, Caracas, 1080A, Venezuela.
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Schnell
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Mendoza
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D004247:DNA / Q000235:genetics*; D008957:Models, Genetic; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction
chemical_list: D004247:DNA