Abstract: The present invention relates to the field of nucleic acid sequence replication including PCR. Specifically, the present invention relates to methods and compositions for amplifying one or more target sequences from one or more template sequences. In particular, the present invention provides novel primer designs to enhance specificity of PCR reactions. The present invention also provides methods and compositions to perform the selection of specific sequence sections using specific primers and the amplification of all selected sequence sections using a pair of common primers in a single reaction tube.