Imagine That It Is 1965 and the Bacterium Thermus Aquaticus

Multiple Choice

Imagine that it is 1965 and the bacterium Thermus aquaticus has not yet been discovered. As a geneticist interested in forensics applications, you are attempting to develop a gene-amplifying technique similar to PCR. In a test tube, you place a DNA sample, free nucleotides, human DNA polymerase, and the appropriate primers for the DNA sequence being analyzed. You first heat the sample to 90°C, then cool it to 50°C, and then reheat it to 70°C. Based on this scenario and your knowledge of how modern PCR works, the result of these procedures will be:

A) successful copying of the DNA, because it follows modern PCR procedures almost perfectly.
B) unsuccessful, because the enzyme will denature during the first step (heating) .
C) unsuccessful, because the enzyme will denature during the second step (cooling) .
D) unsuccessful, because the enzyme will denature during the third step (reheating) .
E) unsuccessful, because human DNA polymerase cannot recognize the primers used.