The time and labor required for generating nucleotide sequence information has been significantly reduced since the development of the polymerase chain reaction (PCR). PCR allows the production of sufficient amounts of DNA template in vitro, and consequently, the time-consuming cloning procedure to obtain large enough quantities of DNA for sequencingisavoided. The PCR has transformed nucleotide sequencing into a method that can be considered even in routine diagnostics for sequencing large numbers of individual samples.
