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.