Taq polymerase

English

Etymology

From the thermophilic bacterium Thermus aquaticus.

Noun

Taq polymerase (plural Taq polymerases)

1. (biochemistry) A thermostable DNA polymerase known for its relatively high rate of transcription errors.
   • 2009, A.N. Shukla, Industrial Enzymology, →ISBN, page 237:

     Another use of Taq polymerase is directly in DNA sequencing, where the high temperatures employed help reduce problems caused by secondary structure in the template and allow an increase in the stringency of primers used. Taq polymerase has, for the reasons mentioned earlier, become a very important tool for the molecular biologist.

   • 2010, Terry Brown, Gene Cloning and DNA Analysis: An Introduction, →ISBN, page 157:

     Taq polymerase lacks a proofreading activity and as a result is unable to correct its errors.

   • 2010, Cornel Mulhardt, Molecular Biology and Genomics, →ISBN, page 73:

     If a PCR is performed with Taq polymerase and with 10,000 template molecules, producing a product that is 1000 bp long, 1% of the newly generated fragments will have a mutation in the first cycle.