Why doesn't a qPCR use an elongation step while a normal PCR reaction does next to its hybridization step? Is it because the fragments are smaller in a qPCR?
It’s just because of the size of amplified fragments, and the hybridization time is more than enough. It s also due to the high efficiency of SyberGreen taq plymerase.
In my humble opinion, a qPCR has an elongation step. But as mentioned above by Nassima, due to the smaller size of the amplified fragments and the efficiency of the polymerases used nowadays, it is quite common to use a single step combining hybridization and elongation which is sufficient for the amplification instead of two seperate steps of hybridization and then elongation.