What are primers?

Chemically synthesized oligonucleotides that are complementary to the regions of DNA.

Primers are small, chemically synthesised oligonucleotides that are complementary to the DNA sequence for which they have been designed for .

Primers play essential role in DNA replication and amplification processes like Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR). Primers, being short and specifically designed sequences, bind to their complementary sequences on the DNA template, initiating DNA synthesis. Their complementarity allows them to anneal to the target DNA region, and their free 3' OH end provides the starting point for DNA polymerase to add new nucleotides (dNTPs) during DNA replication or amplification. This process enables the amplification of specific DNA sequences in techniques like PCR, helping generate multiple copies of the desired DNA segment.