LAMP (loop-mediated isothermal amplification) is a newly developed DNA amplification technique. There are four main principles underlying this technique:
All reactions take place under isothermal conditions. There is no need for a thermal cycler as amplification occurs at a single, constant temperature of 60°C - 65°C.
LAMP technology uses a DNA polymerase that possesses high strand displacement activity. This property allows primer annealing and subsequent amplicon elongation without the need for heat denaturation of dsDNA.
The amplification efficiency is very high and generates a vast amount of amplification products.
When reverse transcriptase (RT) or an enzyme with both RT and DNA polymerase activities is added, LAMP can also be used for RNA templates.