Integrated DNA Technologies

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Integrated DNA Technologies sells short strands of DNA called oligonucleotides. In order to better understand how these are useful, you'll have to know a bit about DNA itself. DNA is "the blueprint for life" and encodes instructions for all of life's processes. DNA is a complex long thin molecule (strand) that is made from 4 possible building blocks called "bases". These bases are called Adenine, Cytosine, Guanine and Thymine, and the precise order of these bases is a code for information. In living organisms, DNA strands can be millions of bases long and therefore contain huge amounts of information. This complexity is responsible for the vast complexity and diversity of life on earth. The way that one strand of DNA specifically binds a second strand of DNA allows scientists to use short DNA strands (oligos) as research tools. A short synthetic piece of DNA (usually around 20 bases long) can be used to bind or find its matching sequence even in a complex mixture of millions of u