Betaine is a simple little molecule:
It finds use in medicine in treating elevated homocysteine levels - a molecule that deserves its own entry. It also can act as a denaturant - things like urea, formamide, and guanidinium are useful for this in biology. Betaine, at the right concentration, can help to unfold DNA a little bit, while leaving certain DNA polymerases untouched. For this reason, some people use it in DNA amplification by PCR.
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