Introduction: 20+ Years of Rolling the DNA Minicircles—State of the Art in the RCA-Based Nucleic Acid Diagnostics and Therapeutics

Abstract

Since its conception in the early 1990s and thorough validation soon afterwards, the seminal idea of DNA rolling circle amplification (RCA) has been adopted widely. Presently, the RCA-based methods become a broadly used DNA amplification tool and an inexpensive isothermal alternative to still dominant thermally cycled PCR, which is important when restrictions on cost and/or elaborate hardware are an issue. Not less important is that RCA reactions generate long concatemers of an amplified sequence, which are required for certain applications, whereas PCR lacks this ability. This chapter introduces the concept of RCA and discusses its plausible mechanism. It also outlines the unique advantages in molecular biotechnology and molecular medicine offered by RCA, some of which are not covered by this book.