Patent ID: 8101362
Filing Date: 2012-01-24
Classification: C12Q

Abstract:
1. A method for detecting the presence or absence of C. difficile in a biological sample from an individual, said method comprising: performing at least one cycling step, wherein a cycling step comprises an amplifying step and a hybridizing step, wherein said amplifying step comprises contacting said sample with a pair of tcdC primers to produce a tcdC amplification product if a tcdC nucleic acid molecule is present in said sample, wherein said pair of tcdC primers comprises a first tcdC primer and a second tcdC primer, wherein said first tcdC primer comprises the sequence 5′-ACC TCA TCA CCA TCT TCA ATA AC-3′ (SEQ ID NO:1), and wherein said second tcdC primer comprises the sequence 5′-TCA AAA TGA AAG ACG ACG AAA-3′ (SEQ ID NO:2), wherein said hybridizing step comprises contacting said sample with a pair of tcdC probes, wherein the members of said pair of tcdC probes hybridize to said tcdC amplification product within no more than five nucleotides of each other, wherein a first tcdC probe of said pair of tcdC probes is labeled with a donor fluorescent moiety and said second tcdC probe of said pair of tcdC probes is labeled with a corresponding acceptor fluorescent moiety; and detecting the presence or absence of fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET) between said donor fluorescent moiety of said first tcdC probe and said acceptor fluorescent moiety of said second tcdC probe, wherein the presence of FRET is indicative of the presence of