Sickle cell anaemia is an autosomal recessive inherited disorder:• allele HbA codes for the normal β-globin polypeptide• allele HbS codes for the sickle-cell polypeptide.To test for the presence of HbS, DNA is extracted and the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) is carried out with two specific primers.One mutation to produce HbS is a base substitution in the sixth codon of the β-globin gene. The normal codon GAG changes to GTG. The normal-specific primer detectsGAG whereas the mutant-specific primer detects GTG. Explain:• why primers are used in PCR• how the use of two specific primers allows the amplification of the normal, sickle cellanaemia and SCT genotypes.

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