DNA denaturation and renaturation processes are used for genetic research and studies.

In
the process of denaturation, an unwinding of DNA double-strand takes place, resulting in two
separate single strands on applying high temperature, extreme pH, etc. Separate single strands
rewind on cooling and the process is known as renaturation.
 
Denaturation and renaturation kinetics are used to determine the size and complexity of the
genome. It is also used to understand the relativity of two genomes and repetitive sequences
present in a genome.
What is Denaturation?
DNA has a double-stranded helical structure. There are various factors that affect the stability
of the DNA structure.
In the denaturation process, the hydrogen bonds between two strands are broken giving rise to
two single strands. The covalent bonds of DNA remain unaffected.
Denaturation can be brought by various methods:
Thermal denaturation: Denaturation can be done by heating (>80-90℃). The temperature at
which DNA is half denatured is called critical temperature or melting temperature, Tm. Tm is
dependent on the length and composition of the DNA bases and other factors such as pH and
denaturing agents.
Extreme pH: At high pH (>11.3), hydrogen bonds between base pairs of two strands of DNA
dissociate due to presence of abundant OH– ion. It results in denaturation of DNA.
Other denaturing Agents: Low salt concentrations destabilise hydrogen bonds. Formaldehyde
and urea have a tendency to form hydrogen bonds with nitrogen bases and aldehydes also
prevent hydrogen bonding between base pairs by modifying electronegative centres of
nitrogenous bases.
Effect of denaturation of DNA:
Increased absorption of UV light at 260nm wavelengths. The rate of absorption is directly
proportional to the rate of denaturation
Viscosity decreases, which reflects the physical change occurred in the DNA structure
What is Renaturation?
Renaturation is also known as annealing. When the temperature and pH return to optimum
biological level, the unwound strand of DNA rewind and give back the dsDNA.
If the DNA is not completely denatured, the renaturation process is fast and a one-step process,
but if the DNAs are completely denatured then the renaturation process occurs in a two-step
process. First complementary strands come together by random collision and then rewinding
takes place forming a double helix.
Renaturation occurs when the denatured DNAs are cooled in suitable conditions. Renaturation
also depends on temperature, pH, length and constituents of the DNA structure. The
renaturation rate is directly proportional to the number of complementary sequences present.
With renaturation, absorption of UV (260nm) decreases and viscosity increases again.

Hybr
idization, as related to genomics, is the process in which two complementary single-stranded
DNA and/or RNA molecules bond together to form a double-stranded molecule. The bonding
is dependent on the appropriate base-pairing across the two single-stranded molecules.
Hybridization is an important process in various research and clinical laboratory techniques.
DNA is usually found as a double-stranded molecule. The two strands bind to one another in a
complementary fashion by a process called hybridization. Naturally, when DNA is replicated,
the new strand hybridizes to the old strand. In the laboratory, we can make small pieces of
DNA, designed to screen for the presence or absence of certain DNA or RNA molecules in the
cell. It also plays an important role in a procedure called polymerase chain reaction, known as
PCR, where we amplify specific regions of the gene, and this is used in clinical testing.
In molecular biology, hybridization (or hybridisation) is a phenomenon in which single-
stranded deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) or ribonucleic acid (RNA)
molecules anneal to complementary DNA or RNA.  Though a double-stranded DNA sequence
[1]

is generally stable under physiological conditions, changing these conditions in the laboratory
(generally by raising the surrounding temperature) will cause the molecules to separate into
single strands. These strands are complementary to each other but may also be complementary
to other sequences present in their surroundings. Lowering the surrounding temperature allows
the single-stranded molecules to anneal or “hybridize” to each other.
DNA replication and transcription of DNA into RNA both rely upon nucleotide hybridization,
as do molecular biology techniques including Southern blots and Northern blots,
[2]
 the polymerase chain reaction (PCR), and most approaches to DNA sequencing.

Applications of Hybridization

Hybridization is a basic property of nucleotide sequences and is taken advantage of in

numerous molecular biology techniques. Overall, genetic relatedness of two species can be
determined by hybridizing segments of their DNA (DNA-DNA hybridization). Due to
sequence similarity between closely related organisms, higher temperatures are required to melt
such DNA hybrids when compared to more distantly related organisms. A variety of different
methods use hybridization to pinpoint the origin of a DNA sample, including the polymerase
chain reaction (PCR). In another technique, short DNA sequences are hybridized to cellular
mRNAs to identify expressed genes. Pharmaceutical drug companies are exploring the use of
antisense RNA to bind to undesired mRNA, preventing the ribosome from translating the
mRNA into protein.