Patent ID: 6358690
Filing Date: 2002-03-19
Classification: C12Q

Abstract:
A method for identifying shorter target DNA sequences containing deletion mutations in a mixture of DNA strands which may contain the deletion mutant and which does contain multiple copies of non-mutant longer copies of the same target DNA sequence, the method comprising(a) denaturing the DNA strands by heating the mixture; (b) cooling the mixture to permit primers to anneal to the strand of the denatured DNA strands, the primers selected to bind to the DNA strands of the target sequence whether or not the target DNA sequence contains a deletion mutation; (c) selectively extending primers bound to deletion mutant DNA strands by performing a primer extension reaction with a DNA polymerase to extend the length of any primers which annealed to a target DNA sequence, one or more parameters of this extension step being altered to favor extension of the shorter deletion mutant versions of the target DNA sequence in preference over the creation of copies of the longer non-mutant versions of the target DNA sequence; and (d) repeating steps (a) through (c) multiple time until multiple copies of the target DNA containing the deletion mutation are created.