Nucleic Acid Structure and Basic Analysis

Abstract

Substantial advances have been made in gene analysis and genomics in recent years, and this has been accelerated by the continued development and refinement of methods and techniques for studying nucleic acids. The application of molecular biology techniques has allowed understanding of cellular processes, both in normal and disease states. The advent of this type of DNA analysis has provided insight into the genetic make up of patients and their disease susceptibility and diagnostics. Prognostic analysis has also allowed the development of personalised or precision medicine and there is now great promise in further developments in drug discovery and molecular gene therapy. This chapter provides an overview of the general features of nucleic acid structure and function. It also describes some of the basic methods used in nucleic acid isolation and analysis, including restriction analysis, blotting, hybridization, the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and associated methods, such as quantitative PCR and further genetic tests based on this method.