What are primer dimers in pcr?
Primerdimer occur, when the Primer are -or parts- are complementary (3′ of the FOR- and 3′ of the REV-Primer). While PCR both oligos hybridizate and are elongated. The Product contains both primer sequences. Primerdimers reduce the avaiable ammount of primers for the pcr-reaction. Therefore the pcr effectivity is reduced because of this non-specific reaction.