anneal

anneal

 [ah-nēl´]

1. to heat a material, such as glass or metal, followed by controlled cooling to remove internal stresses and induce a desired degree of toughness, temper, or softness of the material.

2. to homogenize an amalgam alloy ingot by heating it in an oven.

3. to heat a material, such as gold foil, to volatilize and drive off impurities from its surface, and to increase its cohesive properties.

an·neal

(an-nēl'),

1. To soften or temper a metal by controlled heating and cooling; the process makes a metal more easily adapted, bent, or swaged, and often less brittle.

2. In dentistry, to heat gold leaf preparatory to its insertion into a cavity, to remove adsorbed gases and other contaminants.

3. The pairing of complementary single strands of DNA; or of DNA-RNA.

4. The attachment of the ends of two macromolecules, for example, two microtubules annealing to form one longer microtubule.

5. In molecular biology, annealing is a process in which short sections of single-stranded DNA from one source are bound to a filter and incubated with single-stranded, radioactively conjugated DNA from a second source. Where the two sets of DNA possess complementary sequences of nucleotides, bonding occurs. The degree of relatedness (homology) of the two sets of DNA is then estimated according to the radioactivity level of the filter. This technique plays a central role in the classification of bacteria and viruses. Synonym(s): nucleic acid hybridization

6. To renature proteins or polynucleic acids by slow cooling.

[A.S. anaelan, to burn]

anneal

/an·neal/ (ah-nēl´)

1. to toughen, temper, or soften a material, as a metal, by controlled heating and cooling.

2. in molecular biology, to cause the association or reassociation of single-stranded nucleic acids so that double-stranded molecules are formed, often by heating and cooling.

anneal

Etymology: AS, aelan, to burn

1 to temper metals, glass, or other materials by controlled heating and cooling to make them more malleable and ductile.

2 to cause the interaction of two separate strands of nucleic acid to form a duplex molecule, often by using a related technique of controlled heating and cooling.

an·neal

(ă-nēl')

Process by which oligonucleotides affix to targeted DNA sequences.

[A.S. anaelan, to burn]

an·neal

(ă-nēl')

In dentistry, to heat gold leaf preparatory to its insertion into a cavity to remove adsorbed gases and other contaminants.

[A.S. anaelan, to burn]