Name the source of Taq polymerase. Explain the advantage of its use in biotechnology. Also, explain the process used for amplification of genes.

Explanation

Taq polymerase emzyme is obtained from the bacterium Thermus aquaticus.
This enzyme is thermostable and can withstand high temperature used for denaturation and separation of the two strands of DNA in PCR. Desired gene can be amplified to produce even a billion copy of DNA.
Amplification of gene is done using Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR).
PCR is carried out in the following steps :
(i) Denaturation The double-stranded DNA is denatured by applying high temperature of `95^(@)C` for 15 seconds. Each separated strand acts as a template.
(ii) Annealing Two sets of primers are added which anneal
(iii) Extension DNA polymerase extends the primers by adding nucleotides complementary to the template provided the reaction, Taq polymerase is used in the reaction, which can tolerate heat. All these steps are repeated many times to get several copies of the desired DNA.