[Degenerate PCR and its application in gene cloning].

Degenerate PCR is introduced in this paper, including what is degenerate PCR, how to design degenerate primers, how to optimize degenerate PCR parameters, how to applying degenerate PCR to obtain full-length gene and which fields can apply degenerate PCR. The limits and recent advances of degenerate PCR are also discussed. Based on this introduction,strategies of gene cloning and applications of degenerate PCR in gene cloning are summarized in brief. Degenerate PCR is a very useful tool for searching and discovering new genes and new members of a protein family.