In contrast to classical melt curve analysis, HRM provides significantly more information, down to single nucleotide differences. The main purpose of a melt curve is to verify the specificity of amplification and to check for the presence of nonspecific amplification products, such as primer dimers. In HRM analysis, the melting curve analysis serves to distinguish between several PCR amplicons with subtle changes in sequence and length, down to the single nucleotide level (see figure
Differences between classical melt curve analysis and HRM analysis).