The polymerase chain reaction (PCR) relies upon the binding
characteristics of the oligonucleotide primers used to define the
targeted region of DNA. A great deal of effort is often expended
to design primers which bind specifically to the region of
interest and which do not form primer dimers (i.e., bind to
themselves). Since the positions of the primers define the size
of the PCR products, primers are sometimes redesigned when STR multiplexes are prepared. Different
groups have often designed unique primers for the same STR loci.
The STR fact sheets take this into
account by listing each primer set with the subsequent PCR
product sizes. Here we have broken up the published PCR primers
into two groups.