1. Introduction and Basic Methods; A Short History of PCR; Equipping and Establishing a PCR Laboratory; PCR: Principles, Procedures, and Parameters; Polymerase Chain Reaction: Basic Principles and Routine Practice; PCR Patent Issues; Overview of PCR-Based Systems in Identity Testing; In Situ PCR: An Overview; An Introduction to PCR Primer Design and Optimization of Amplification Reactions; PCR Primer Design; Computer Programs for PCR Primer Design and Analysis; Quality Control of the Polymerase Chain Reaction; Quality Control; Amplification of Genomic DNA by PCR; Amplification of DNA and RNA by PCR; Optimization of PCR Reactions; RT-PCR in Biomedicine: Opportunities Arising from the New Accessibility of mRNA; RT-PCR Methods and Applications; The Basics of RT-PCR: Some Practical Considerations; Quantitative RT-PCR: A Review of Current Methodologies; Quantitative RT-PCR; One-Tube RT-PCR with Sequence-Specific Primers; Nested RT-PCR in a Single Closed Tube; Relative Reverse-transcription-Polymerase Chain Reaction; Single-Step PCR Optimization Using Touchdown and Stepdown PCR Programming; Randomly Amplified Polymorphic DNA (RAPD) Finger Printing: The Basics; Ligase Chain Reaction; Direct PCR from Serum: Application to Viral Genome Detection; Degenerate oligonucleotide primed PCR (DOP-PCR); 2. Preparation of Nucleic Acid Templates; DNA; Extraction of Nucleic Acid Templates; Extraction of DNA from Whole Blood; DNA Extraction from Plasma and Serum; DNA Extraction from Tissue; Extraction of DNA from Microdissected Archival Tissues; Extraction of Ancient DNA; Isolation of DNA and RNA; Dual DNA/RNA Extraction; Recovery of High-Molecular-Weight DNA from Blood and Forensic Specimens; Recovery of DNA for PCR Amplification from Blood and Forensic Samples Using a Chelating Resin; Isolation and Purification of Plant Nucleic Acids: Genomic and Chloroplast DNA; Preparation of DNA from Arabidopsis; High Molecular Weight DNA Extraction from Arabidopsis; Chloroplast DNA Isolation; Purification of Mitochondrial DNA from Green Tissues of Arabidopsis; Isolation of Genomic DNA from Mycobacteria; Nucleic-Acid Extraction: Plasmid/Cosmid DNA, Extraction of DNA from Mycoplasmas; DNA Extraction from Fungi, Yeast, and Bacteria; Extraction and Purification of Plasmodium Parasite DNA; Isolation and Purification of Insect DNA; Isolation and Purification of Vertebrate DNAs; Geminivirus Isolation and DNA Extraction; Caulimovirus Isolation and DNA Extraction; RNA; Formaldehyde Gel Electrophoresis of Total RNA; UV Spectrophotometric Analysis of Ribonucleic Acids; Introduction to Isolating RNA; Isolation of Messenger RNA; Large and Small Scale RNA Preparations from Eukaryotic Cells; An Improved Rapid Method of Isolating RNA from Cultured Cells; Efficient Extraction of RNA from Vascular Tissue; Isolating RNA with the Cationic Surfactant, Catrimox-14; RNA Extraction from Formalin-Fixed and Paraffin-Embedded Tissues; RNA extraction from frozen tissue. RNA extraction from tissue sections;