Question

Why is a thermostable DNA polymerase needed amplification or genetic engineering?

Answer 1

Genetic engineering is a technique of biotechnology which helps in the production of several pesticides and herbicides resistance and transgenic plants and animals. It is also the process of using recombinant DNA technology which can alter the genes of an organism.

Complete answer:
A DNA polymerase is the enzyme which helps in the synthesis of DNA molecules from nucleoside triphosphate which is the molecular parent of DNA. These enzymes are very important for the replication of DNA and generally function as a group to make two identical DNA from a single original DNA. A thermostable DNA polymerase helps in the possessing of proofreading activity is desirable for high range of amplification such as when amplifying large segments of DNA which are found at low copy-number and each copy may be a sequence variant concerning the others when amplifying genes where the exact sequence is known only for a related gene and the for expression studies of the genes.
DNA polymerase is an enzyme which functions best at normal body temperature. At the time of amplification or polymerase chain reaction, the temperature tends to increase around 60 degree Celsius and as a result of which the enzymes become denatured and because of this reason the ablest DNA polymerase is used in amplification. The DNA polymerase is used because it plays a key role in synthesizing and amplifying new strands of DNA, Taq DNA Polymerase is essential to Polymerase Chain Reaction.

Note: The organism from where the thermostable DNA polymerase is isolated from Thermus aquaticus. It has a great impact in genetic engineering as it is used in Polymerase chain reaction because it can resist the high temperatures which are applied to separate DNA strands.