Figure 3

Abiotical chain reaction to generate a pool of dsRNA. Melting of dsRNA by an increase in temperature will results in two separate daughter strands. Upon lowering of the temperature, oligonucleotides can hybridize to the individual strands that are subsequently abiotically ligated to form a new chain of dsRNA. This dsRNA can then reenter the melting-polymerization chain, leading to an exponential increase or replication of the initial dsRNA strand. This process is similar to the polymerase chain reaction that amplifies dsDNA.