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Taq polymerase is an enzyme that is used by scientists in the polymerase chain reaction because it is stable at high temperatures. It is the polymerase used by a bacteria, Thermus auquatics, which... Taq polymerase is an enzyme that is used by scientists in the polymerase chain reaction because it is stable at high temperatures. Large amounts of a sample of DNA are necessary for molecular and genetic analyses, and the polymerase chain reaction is used to amplify very small amounts of DNA.
PCR requires a DNA polymerase enzyme. While all organisms contain DNA polymerases, the polymerase that is used in PCR comes from the thermophilic bacterium Thermus aquaticus. This Taq polymerase is heat-resistant, meaning that temperatures of up to 95 Â°C can be used in PCR, conditions of low DNA duplex stability.