Of course, all organisms have enzymes to duplicate DNA, but Thermus has had to evolve one that can withstand near-boiling temperatures. This is useful for molecular biologists because the easiest way to ready DNA for duplication is to boil it, separating it into its two constituent strands. Repeated boiling and cooling of a solution containing both DNA and Taq polymerase duplicates—or ‘amplifies’—even the most minute quantities of original DNA. The method is called the ‘polymerase chain reaction’, or PCR, and it is brilliantly clever.
